The EU referendum, building the Britain I want

The EU referendum, building the Britain I want

This was written whilst tired and wet on a train, after reading a few articles about the EU referendum and after initially posting on my personal facebook page and a long consideration, I have decided to post on my professional profile. I now feel I have to stand up for what I believe in and the values I hold. It was written with no idea about what I would do with it, but writing it down got it out of my system. It's long, but I thought I would share here, just in case other people feel as demoralised by this process as I do. Please take this very personal account, in that spirit, I do not intend to change your mind or influence, but I would like to encourage you to vote and use your democratic right. And of course these views do not necessarily reflect my employer etc.

This referendum is turning into a war, a battle for a future Britain. As Will Hutton says this week the EU is a noble idea, whose anti-fascist, anti-war roots still count.

Stranded on a wet Nuneaton train station on the way to Cambridge I reflected on that battle. This vote sets us on a course, one we cannot change in a few years, this is not changing the colour of the leadership, and tinkering with a few short term policies, it is setting a course Britain will steer forever.

I am an evidence based decision maker, I research, I consider, I evaluate, but as my last post intimated on forecasting this is a difficult one to call on evidence and no one really knows what the impact will be either way, or in fact how the alternative would have played out. But for once I also look at this as a heart driven decision. This is about the Britain I love and what I want it to be in the future.

For this I reflect on a recent event in my life which is incredibly personal.
My gran, Ethel, is 95; she worked in an ammunition factory in Trafford Park, making bullets with the Manchester United team who nicknamed her “tiny” (she is 4ft 5 and shrinking). She continued to work all her life as a cook and cleaner at Manchester Children’s hospital, retiring in her 60’s to start cleaning for family and friends to keep her busy. My Grandad served in WW2 and returned with a bottle of Chanel no 5 for her, borrowed a pound off her and bought an engagement ring, he gave her an old pound back on their 50th wedding anniversary (again borrowed). They lived a life of exploration, travelling, always having the latest things, and loved one another until his death. I aspire to be her, for her straight talking, aggressive love of life and people, and her openness to new things (I wouldn’t recommend Lasagna and gravy though, however innovative it is!).

At 95 she is just starting to experience the frailty of aging, her memory is now failing her. She remembers who she is and who we are, and thankfully we are not seeing the essential Ethel disappear yet. She still swears like she is back in that factory, gets a glint in her eye at a rude joke and tells us off if we are mean. But she forgets the immediate, she forgets if you have told her something, and after the 15th time of telling her she still doesn’t remember, she apologises for being a nuisance. My patience has never been so tested! But she still spends every weekend with us, as she has done for the last 20 years. It is hard to see someone you love go through this memory loss.

Bear with me there is EU referendum relevance to this story!

Recently we have experienced her thinking she has done things which she hasn’t, collecting her pension, paying bills etc, by accident we discovered she wasn’t. So I have begun the heart breaking process of doing things for my very independent Gran and her gratitude and appreciation knows no bounds.
I now see the value in my gran’s no nonsense, open and kind approach with everyone, as neighbours provide wonderful support, checking on her and tolerating her endless calls, to check what she called for last time. But today I reflect on a recent incident with our great British Post Office.

The bloke in my Gran’s post office has been amazing, giving her a lift home when confused, helping her pay bills, worrying when she didn’t turn up, going round to neighbours to find relatives when he thought there was a problem. Exchanging Christmas presents and taking time to chat to my Gran and answer her endless calls on bad days and to laugh and joke with her on good.
This is someone who cares about the community he serves, who makes time for his elderly clients above and beyond. When I thanked him his simple response was "it's what being part of a community is all about, it's a pleasure to help".

This is the Britain I want, not a fanciful, nostalgic reflection on the golden era, which somehow is associated with pre-EU. Not one that protects our own and shuts out the rest. One modeled by my gran and her postmaster, of respect, kindness and openness to each others regardless of who you are, being part of that community and helping those that need it.

My Gran is 95, white and from working class mining and 'rag and bone' background, brought up in an entrepreneurial home, the first to have TV and the first to have electric lights. She worked all her life, voted Labour all her life, but race, background and religion have no place in her approach to people. Whether they are worth her time depends on how they treat her as individuals. She only ever speaks highly of her postmaster “he’s a lovely man” she does not mention his colour or religion. He is simply nice. These things do not matter. I do not care about those things either, they are irrelevant. I do not care where he comes from, I do not see him as 'them'. I can only offer my heartfelt appreciation for the fact he is here. I am just grateful someone cared enough to make sure my gran was safe and bothered to bring a smile to her face.

And there’s my decision, I want Britain to be tolerant, open, inclusive and caring. I want kind words and appreciation; I want a common sense approach to how we treat others; I want a warm welcome with open arms and a cup of tea (with a biscuit) as my Gran would offer. I want the rest of the world to know this is Britain, that we care about those most in need and that we can drive change, that we are part of a bigger community. I want this Britain back from the images being peddled in the media and the lies continuously quoted that I feel compelled to correct, both for and remain.

I want this campaign of hate to stop and be over. It’s not what my Gran worked for, nor the peace my Grandad fought for, it’s not how I was brought up.
Just like Will Hutton, I believe in the EU as a force for good, a force for compassion and tolerance, a force for peace and freedom where compromise and diplomacy and kind words have far more power than anger, bullets and war.

The economic case for the EU is a useful by-product, the true value is in our ability to work together to achieve greater good. I want Britain to be a leader of this, be a force for good and positive change, to be able to shape the EU.

I will be voting remain so that we can have an opportunity to do that, and I can continue to be proud of my country and its future contribution to the world.

But whatever your personal decision, tomorrow make sure you use that vote!

 

 

Image used under creative commons: EU Flagga | by MPD01605 EU Flagga | by MPD01605

Great post Rebecca which I have only just got round to reading. I too voted for Remain for very similar reasons laid out in your article. Now that we have voted for Brexit we must respect that choice but at the same time we must double our efforts that Britain maintains the values of your grandmother. Thanks for your insight.

Sarah Downes

Circular Economy | Knowledge Exchange | Research | Projects | Trustee | WEEE

8 年

Rebecca Riley for leader!

Thomas Fryer

Head of International Relations at GéANT

8 年

Terrific! Similarly, I wrote a piece on a flight over, with the aim of getting things off my chest. I also posted on Facebook where it got some traction. What I wrote was this: Tomorrow Britain faces a huge decision, the most important and significant one since I became politically aware when Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the Labour Party in the early 1980s. The result will determine much of the future of Britain, but also that of our European friends and neighbours. It is very likely that its impacts will be felt further afield also. Since 2008 the world has been dealing with an economic crisis which we may slowly be beginning to come out of. The world is also suffering from crises of other and even more devastating kinds on a human level. The fighting raging in Syria means people have no choice but to flee to escape the absolute reality of death. Boko Harem attacks continue in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. We have terrorist attacks killing and destroying the lives of innocent people in Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. The list goes on. At times like these, countries around the world need to work together closely to work towards solving these problems. The answers will be complex, difficult and not easy to find. They require a determination to work together and to find commonalities, and to cooperate over many years. They require the ability to understand nuance and complexity. If we are to succeed in this, our countries need to trust each other. Yet since the UK general election last year, and before also, so much of the political discourse in the UK has been an inward-looking discussion about whether we as a nation should turn our backs our neighbours and friends, and strike out on our own, dreaming of returning to a historical ideal which never really existed. If Britain votes to leave the EU we will spend at least two years negotiating the exit with our neighbours. Trade agreements with other world countries will take a long time to establish also. Which countries will be excited about setting up such arrangements? Doing all this will require lots of political effort and additional human resources to get the work done. All this will have significant cost. To go ahead and leave, we will damage our close relationships with our closest partners. Our voice will be diminished, not enhanced. In the EU, we can influence decisions and policies and ensure they are heard outside Europe. If we are outside the EU, we will no doubt be seen as a nation which is only in it for the good times, but runs away when the going gets tough. Such a perception would harm our global reputation. It seems almost like the child in the playground who is happy with the rules to a game when they are winning, but as soon as things aren’t going so well for them, they storm off in a temper. Others end up not wanting to play with that child. Britain should never become that child. We hear so much criticism of the European Union, some of it justified, but so much misdirected and often incorrect. Certainly there are things to be improved. Yet we must remember that no system is perfect, and Britain might do well to seriously look at how to improve democracy in our own country where it is so easy for a party with less than 40% of the national vote to govern with an overall majority in parliament. This to me seems a far more absurd situation than having a European Commission which is appointed by agreement among the elected governments of the EU member states, and has a democratically elected European Parliament to oversee it. So whilst I say, yes let’s look at how we can reduce the democratic deficit in the EU, let us sort out our internal system too. Why are Brexit supporters not making noise about that? Then we come to the fact of the benefits which the EU brings, ranging from workers’ rights, environmental protection, consumer rights, etc. However, I would like to emphasise one in particular which I witness every day in my work, and that it the way that having the European Union provides a system where scientists and researchers across the continent are able to come together, collaborate and make discoveries which will have an impact on people’s lives, not just in Europe but across the world. Bio-genomics, cancer research, climate change research, crop research, health care. All things which directly can have a positive outcome on the lives of each and every European citizen. Yet it isn’t just about the money, it’s about how the funding is provided. Researchers with common interests are able to draw up a single proposal for a particular theme which they submit together to a single funding source. A single decision comes out, yes or no. Without this, the partners risk having to each apply to their own funding sources, with the risk that just one rejection could scupper a project accepted by other funding sources. For funding from multiple sources to work, coordination would be needed among different countries’ funding sources. That would cost. Yet the EU already does this. So the European Union is not just about money and figures which you can try and put a finger on. It’s about collaboration. Collaboration among countries, collaboration among governments, collaboration among scientists… Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. We hear too much on immigration and how it overwhelms us. Good arguments have been made about this and how the Leave arguments are off target (David Cameron has made a good one in the last 24 hours, even). But I would like to tackle this subject on a personal level. I recall preparing for my GCSEs back in the late 1980s. In the discourse I prepared for my French oral exam on what I would like to do in life, I talked of working in R&D to find solutions to environmental issues (hydrogen-run engines is what I had in mind). However, what I emphasised was my excitement of the opening of Europe in 1992 which would enable me to travel and work around Europe more easily than ever. The first part of the talk was wide of the mark (though through my work today I do make a small contribution to enabling researchers to do their amazing work), but the second point has been a determining part of my life. I have lived and worked in France, Germany and Spain. I moved to Spain on a whim in February 2000, and thanks to the open borders, I was able to go, see if it worked and decide whether to stay or not. I did, and 16 years later I am married to a Spaniard and have a British and Spanish son. I want the opportunity for my son, wherever he lives, and all other British children to be able to have the excitement and life-enhancing experiences that this freedom of movement gave me. It is those experiences which bring people together, make them realise that there is so much more which unites people than divides them, and can help strengthen the close trust and friendships which the UK, the rest of Europe and the world need if we are to successfully deal with the challenges we face. There is so much more I could say, and I must admit that this has been written quite quickly on a two-hour flight, so I am sure it could be improved a lot. However, it sets out the essence of what I want to say, which is this: a vote for Remain is a vote for the UK.

Rebecca Riley

DPVC and Professor - enterprise, engagement and impact @CityREDI @LPIPHub

8 年

I think the problem is we have no idea. We voted without a manifesto. We don't know the policy approach on any of the issues we now face.

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S. Vincent Shin

Analytic--Investor--Student

8 年

It may take generations... if ever... No?

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