Brexit

I have not written anything for 4 years - a blog post, a letter to the Irish Times, anything - apart from immediate social media tripe and photos. I assumed I would leave the political commentary to be written by the professionals rather than part-time finance types like myself. Failure to win a journalistic scholarship and with a determination to move onwards and forward, I had left journalism in the past despite a promising start. The euro crisis had seen a rather anti-climactic resolution and in 2012, we seemed to be in a post-climactic Europe and world. I should have foreseen the migrant crisis but I could not have guessed that a British PM would have gambled its' country's future on internal European disputes.

I moved to the UK a year ago for several reasons - professional, cultural and political. I still despaired for Irish politics when we are so behind in so many ways and I used this despair to claim the moral high ground once I moved. I realised Cameron had called for an EU poll in 2013, but like so many liberal types, I had presumed this would be easily won - the UK's outgoing viewpoint vindicated.

The disconnect between London and the rest of England has never been so pronounced and the fact that I did not know a single Leave voter verifies this. With the polls and Bloomberg vindicating my view that the UK would remain in the EU, I nodded off on Thursday night in good spirits. The feeling upon my waking up was one of shock and horror - I could not believe that the UK had left. I mention the UK but it is clear that 2 of the 4 countries in the UK had left - England and Wales. This fact raises its own constitutional issues but I wish to conclude on the effect Brexit had made on this EU national.

I decided to wait a few days to make this point - overly emotive on the day it happened and not wishing to make a tit of myself. It is now Sunday evening after the result and those emotions remain - feelings of unwelcome, alienation and suspicion.  Just like Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty will set a stopwatch to the UK's EU membership, this vote has set a similar timeframe to EU nationals feeling betrayed by England'S small mindedness. EU members living in England like myself feel betrayed and England's claim to cosmopolitanism will never be real again.