“Oh, how simple it was back then…”
Surely 2016 will go down as the year of three things. Brexit, Trump and every celebrity death that ever existed. Flashback to a year ago and all these things were merely a glint in all our eyes. Oh, how simple it was back then. All we had was Farage to contend with, now we have Farage essentially doing an open spot before Trump does his four-year comedy routine. We voted for Brexit, so we have to pull our socks up and get on with it, regardless of the divide in sensibilities. But with all this uncertainty, what does it mean for Britain going into the next calendar year?
2017 will see the triggering of Article 50, and so the process of the UK leaving the EU will be underway. With this comes the conflict between the old guard and new guard. There are many that think that leaving the EU will be the best thing to have ever happened to the United Kingdom. And there are those that will protest until blue in the face. But with the hope that Parliament can still vote against leaving, it still leaves so many questions unanswered. But what does it mean to be British in the 21st century? Is it as bleak as it is made out to be, or are we just retreading the ground of the late 1970’s and early 80’s again? Not to dismiss the the mines closing as a little thing. There was mass unemployment, and mining communities have not yet recovered from the closing down of the main source of revenue for the area. What I’m saying is that we have done our best to cope with it before, can we do it again?
The Calais “Jungle” has now closed and so the eye is on the thorny issue of immigration again. With the most powerful man in the world is now a former reality TV star that has more than his fair share of sexual harassment cases, what does this even say about the state of affairs that will be coming to the UK? He even talked of a “Brexit…plus…plus…plus.” Is America following the trend that Britain has now set? With Trump’s promise to scrap Obamacare and with the NHS looking in such a precarious position, are we now turning into a country of “I, Daniel Blakes” that are more concerned about getting our own wall? There’s no doubt that there will be many a British Citizenship Lawyer that won’t be out of work over the next few years!
Being a citizen of the United Kingdom is now a mixed bag of emotions. With many politicians calling for the Britain of yore to come back, do we need to be a country of tea and cake? Or are we going to build on the “special relationship” we have with America? We may have to build on it because we may not have anyone else to relate to anyway! So, is now a time to be British? Who knows?
