Two weeks on from the referendum on the European Union and the government is in turmoil, the nation waits with anxiety and uncertainty, and despicable incidents of racism and prejudice are continuing to emerge.
You will have heard all the arguments, anger, dissection and analysis since June 23 and I don’t want to repeat everything here. This being SecEd, I am somewhat obliged to focus on education and young people…
However, regular readers of my editorials will be able to guess my view and I can say that I have never known feelings of such anger (and for that matter anxiety) as I have felt in recent days. I, like many others, am very worried for our future.
However, there is no changing the result. Whether those who voted “out” did so for justifiable reasons and whether their apparent dreams of an imminent transformation of Great Britain into a paradise of some kind will come true remains to be seen. I suspect many will be disappointed. I suspect many regret their choice of vote.
I am not worried though on the level economic, as many seem to be. I have faith that the country – a country of capitalists and profit-driven enterprises let’s not forget – will find its feet. There are too many people with too much to lose if it doesn’t; this will be the number one priority.
What does actually deeply concern me is the damage that has been done to our communities and our cohesion. The immigration issue has become toxic. All calm, adult and civilised discussion about levels of immigration, proper integration of immigrants and newcomers, and our duties and challenges, moral and physical, in this regard has ended.
The disgusting and prejudice-fuelled rhetoric of the Leave campaign and in particular of Nigel Farage has infected public life. Successive governments must take their share of the blame as it has been evident for some time that many thousands of people feel so very disenfranchised by Westminster politics, so unrepresented, that they have turned away – to the SNP in Scotland to UKIP in England (is it surprising that Scotland voted to Remain and England to Leave?).
UKIP and others have made hay – encouraging prejudice, hatred, division and racism. The referendum campaign then made these views mainstream – it normalised this rhetoric.
Those with racist and prejudiced views have then taken up this rhetoric, have made it their own, and now we are reaping the result – disturbing increases in incidents of racist abuse, both verbal and physical. Legal and often long-term residents of our country being harassed and intimidated in their homes.
And what are the Leave campaigners and Farage doing about it? Nothing. Too busy squabbling for the Tory leadership or, in Farage’s case, jetting off to Brussels to gloat like a spoilt child.
I am not for a moment saying all Leave voters are racists. I reject this view completely. But all racists wanted to leave the EU and are now hijacking the referendum result to justify – to themselves and to others – their evil view of the world.
And in the middle of all this are our young people, who can’t help but be worried, uncertain, anxious for the future – especially those from non-British backgrounds. How many foul stories have we heard in the past three weeks of people being told to “go home” or taunted that they will face deportation? Such abuse is difficult and stressful enough for adults to handle, so imagine how it affects children.
The National Association of Head Teachers has urged the government to act on this particular issue to reassure young people. In a letter to David Cameron, it warned that young people are worried about being forced to leave and “fearful about the potential rise in racism and community conflict”.
The government needs to act now to reassure EU citizens in Britain, both young and old, that they will be able to stay in this country. It is obvious to any right-thinking person that a vote to Leave should never affect the status of people who have already been granted the right to live here – the government needs to act to clarify this immediately.
It is becoming excruciatingly clear now that the Leave campaign has no plan for government. It is being sketched on the back of an envelope. Meanwhile, these increasing acts of abuse and racism and the increasing anxieties of thousands of hard-working residents in our country are going ignored.
- Pete Henshaw is the editor of SecEd and has been writing on education for more than 10 years. Email editor@sec-ed.co.uk