Brexit: Britain jumped out of plane without a parachute

Editor, RE: “Why I think our EAC cannot get to a Brexit point” (The New Times, June 26). David Milliband, the former UK Labour Foreign Minister, said it very well, populism is popular until it gets elected. That politicians in his country had spent over 20 years making poisonous attacks on the EU, and then claim to be surprised that people voted against an institution that has been maligned that extensively and relentlessly. He also said he was stunned at how massive buyers remorse had set in barely 24 hours after the country had voted for Brexit. The degree of bickering now in the UK media with politicians and the voices from the whole spectrum of opinion is shocking to see. None—yes, NONE—seems to have any idea of where they go from here, what will be replacing the current dispensation in which the UK as part of the EU, and the roadmap for getting to that alternative arrangement. We, in Africa, have this misconception that people in the West take decisions only after rationally considering the consequences of all alternative options and settling on what they believe, on the basis of objective criteria, to be in their best interest. In fact, based on what we have just witnessed in the UK, it seems clear they often choose to jump out of the aircraft without putting on a parachute; it is only then that they begin to wonder how, where and in what condition they are going to land! Politicians from both the Leave and the Remain camps all seem to have absolutely no clue as to where they go from here, completely at sea. As a result they are turning on each other in open internecine civil war that can only make the situation for the UK even more untenable. As for the probability of the same thing happening in our own East African Community (EAC), we are not as far advanced into the integration process for any divorce involving one or more members to be as difficult and painful as it is guaranteed to be in the case of Brexit. The lines joining the UK to the rest of the EU in the political, economic, social and security areas are so many and highly intricate that disentangling this Gordian knot in the institutional, business and people-to-people linkages will be a veritable headache. The intra-EAC linkages are substantive and growing rapidly, but the degree of integration is nowhere close to what has already been achieved in the EU, including a UK that has always been the most lukewarm integrationist. Mwene Kalinda **************************** Brexit revealed the stark divisions in British society. Even more than a vote about whether British people like the European project, it was a vote by a group of people who felt ignored by the elites within their own country. If you look at my Facebook page (as a liberal city boy, who has lived in both of the UKs two biggest cities) it would seem like this is the saddest time in our history (except times of war or terrorism). However, speak to people who drive taxis and this is the greatest show of democratic power ever. Brexit was a surprise to us university educated, well paid city types. But also, those who voted for it also dont understand that we are sad for something more than just economics. This is the ultimate example of what happens when there are two groups in society who fundamentally dont understand each other; in this case, it’s class and age, but in previous European history, it was ethnic based and the end result is not too dissimilar. Will Sandys

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Brexit: Britain jumped out of plane without a parachute