Top comment/The older generations will probably never understand or even live to see the damage they have caused this week

Posted by Jon this morning:

Unfortunately there is a substantial cultural divide in the UK now. The last year has seen a spike in racial discrimination – including towards my family and myself, just because we spoke Maltese.

The current climate was the wrong one in which to hold a referendum but there is nothing that can be done about that now. Most young people are distraught by this result and there is substantial disgust and disappointment among the younger generations.

I have many Maltese and other European friends here in the UK and there is substantial uncertainty over what is to happen in the next few years. Many of them have opted to apply for British citizenship because they need to stay in the country. Others will happily leave.

They are all educated and work in highly skilled jobs for which they have been trained diligently in the UK. There may very well be some form of “brain-drain”, which would be disastrous for the economy and other important institutions such as the NHS.

Cambridge University, for example, has already voiced its concern over the loss of MILLIONS in EU funding and the real risk of losing some of its valued staff and students due to discrimination and disillusionment.

The EU is a relatively young concept and the UK should really have worked on improving it from the inside but hey, people used it as a vocal springboard to nudge the Tories. They nudged them. Off the boat.

This was the dirtiest election campaign I have seen in the UK since I moved here. It was disappointing to see a normally very civilised community acting the way they did.

The damage has been done. The older generations will probably never understand or even live to see the damage they have caused this week.

Actually, they probably will. Hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars lost through the FTSE overnight, and the UK possibly disassembling itself. No. I don’t think they’ll miss the aftermath after all. This economic shift may very well dent the very pension they attempted to stop the EU dabbling with.

Boris Johnson et al have an interesting time ahead of them, and meanwhile the average person is going to have to deal with the immediate repercussions. I have no doubt that the future holds recession, a successful Scottish referendum on secession from Britain, Northern Ireland moving to unite with the Republic of Ireland, and some form of EU uprising.

Many didn’t believe the EU would allow the UK to leave, or hoped a better deal could be struck. Now Farage has repudiated his promise to give the EU-bound money (or part of it) to the NHS. Obama has said he will not create a new trade agreement, and the EU just wants the UK OUT (do not keep playing, do not pass GO, do not collect £200).

I am worried about what the future holds for us here in Britain, and I’m not the only one. The divide is not just racial or geographical; it’s also ageist and has divided numerous families.

Just hold in your thoughts the other 48.1% (16+ million people) who bothered to get out and vote to keep the UK where it was with a new and substantially improved EU-UK agreement.

Everyone of us is feeling cheated. This is made worse by the many people who are now declaring their disappointment in how their vote was used “incorrectly”. Want to vote again? You can’t. But you can grow up and learn that a vote is a voice to be used wisely. It was fought for in blood not too many years ago. Churchill must be rolling in his grave.

“…u l-kotra qamet f’daqqa u ghajtet f’daqqa…”

With luck no one else will make the same mistake again.