Happier Abroad Forum Community

I voted remain, the reason being workers rights & the economy and not knowing what risks there would be for leaving. A second concern has arrived, willit mean a) fewer foreigners coming into the country and b) fewer opportunities to go travelling, less spending power and all that.

Brexit was ultimately due to people feeling angry at the establishment. The Brexit vote one because a) they saw it as an opportunity to get back at the Tories b) people were angry due to falling living standards (due to the government's love affair with austerity) & believed the lies that it was all due to immigrants and the EU costing too much c) It's a complicated topic that people don't know much about and was rushed.

Inverse political correctness against those who criticise Brexit
I've just been flipping through some of the posts here and heard an account from one member saying that he got flamed on facebook for suggesting that the Brexit vote was about immigration. You cannot criticize Brexit without being labelled as a 'remoaner' (the good old-fashioned ad-hominem, shut-down tactic). They KNOW that creating political correctness is THE most effective way to CENSOR discussion and debate.

There some very, very VERY clever little devices being employed to divide people. The establishment KNOW they've created a situation where people can't discuss and debate, they know they've created a climate where people just react emotionally and get closed-off to opposing views.

A note about immigration
Before Theresa May got into power she opened the flood gates for record levels of immigration. There's a reasons for this; it's branded as 'labour market flexibility'. Ohh, it's much more sinister than this, it's DESIGNED as a tool to divert people's anger at falling living standards away from the real cause, the excesses of the banks, the austerity con, the tax evaders, and towards scapegoats; the immigrants, the unemployed. It's all VERY CLEAVERLY-CRAFTED.

Labour market flexibility is basically a) making it easy for employers to hire and fire and b) creating a vast standing army of unemployed people by various neoliberal policies (immigration is ONE factor, but that's a convenient little tool to divert public anger towards). Its designed to CHEAPEN THE PRICE OF LABOUR. but is ultimately bad for the economy because of less aggregate demand, less demand for private sector, less turnover for businesses, less demand for work (it's deliberate). Look-up 'marginal propensity to consume'.

Oh, our media spends more time slandering Corbyn and distracting the young with the current climate change craze to divert attention away form what's actually looking at what's going on.

The stuff about excess use of plastics & pollution of the oceans we hear about all over the telly is also nothing new, it's being regurgitated as a distraction tactic and a greenwashing tactic. NOte, that doesn't mean it doesn't matter, what's disturbing is the way it all became so trendy all of a sudden.

There's a new form of political correctness about criticizing Brexit
If you voice any grievances, there's this mechanism whereby people will jump to conclusions that you're insinuating all Brexit voters racist and ignorant. YOu cannot have an adult discussion without people resorting to name-calling, ad-hominem and all that nonsense. I've certainly noticed it. The standard of debate has been worsening (deliberately?) have 'they', the dividers, won?

I just left the UK a couple of months ago and moved to the Philippines. So here's my short take on Brexit.

It is true that Britain has been suffering a form of apathy towards politics that dates back to at least the Thatcher years, when they got the memo that they should "leave politics to professionals politicians" and just focus on making money and paying up their insane mortgages.

It is also true that Brexit, especially this year, has become that rare token topic that can break into a Brit's typical PC stance and heat any sort of debate, ranging from the healthcare system to immigration, to EU policy, to what a party stance should or should not be about.

Breaking PC doesn't equate to raising the quality or the effectiveness of political debate, though. From what I have seen, in most common people circles it has been just a way to direct their anger towards the system, whether it's the EU or Britain itself. If anything, talking Brexit means lowering any discussion to the level of ranting about random problems and always seeing a few people nodding and waiting for their turn to add more ranting.

And, to be honest, the EU is not to blame for the super-liberal labour policies, or the lack of skilled workers that has to be constantly offset by foreigners from Eastern Europe (those who haven't left, yet!). Yes there is a small number of privileged people who work in the City or are company CEOs who make millions of pounds a year in dividends and bonuses. The vast majority of Brits has to live in a very competitive working environment, with stagnating salaries/market rates and - most terrifying - a crippling real inflation on anything from housing to food, entertainment...and even dating!

We got to the point where, in or around London, a family of four where parents make a combined 100,000 pounds a year (gross) cannot make their ends meet. They need at least 40% more of that in order to, you know, go on holiday twice a year instead of once, or send 2 kids to a decent school, which is almost inevitable a private one.

I am not a feminist but I do hold the idea that women should be empowered to take on whatever job they feel intellectually capable to do, with the only boundaries being their physical abilities (e.g. heavy lifting work). It is also true that, with more and more of them becoming financially independent at a younger age, their dating preferences are much more biased towards the young stud who can give them a hot night or two, rather than the decent type they can potentially settle with.

Bar the very few who still want to have a family and babies in their early twenties (and not for the sole purpose of getting a welfare cheque), all the British women I met just want to have fun.

If Brexit will reduce dating opportunities...that I don't know. I don't really see the correlation, honestly. If anything, having less people migrating into the UK from more conservative countries like Poland or Bulgaria will increase the relative number of Anglo-bitches a man will be forced to choose from. That means the same number of easy women for the rare young studs and even less "nice girls" for those who don't have 8s and 9s in the looks or money departments.

I think the UK as a society is pretty much toast. It's a police state with plunging living standards. The utopia of diversity of cultures and races has become a PC nightmare. Other than being born there, I don't see any reason anymore why anyone should want to live there. I moved as soon as I saw the opportunity to make roughly the same I used to make there, but with 10x the opportunity of dating fun.