The theme for this week’s WordPress challenge is ‘Opposites’. Contemplating the differences in opinion for Brexit: ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’, how could I express the extremes behind the vote and the wisdom of the ‘Leave’ result in terms of a photograph?
In the end it will boil down to money. Some think the UK will be better off leaving the EU while others disagree. Some people will benefit financially while others won’t. There are always winners and losers so let’s just hope the UK ‘leavers’ with their ‘island’ mentality eat their words and count the money (or not).
So for my ‘Opposites’ contribution I present a photograph of money: coins and notes. Both of value yet represented by different properties.
Piglet in Portugal 
Piglet,
Every British person that we know here (The Netherlands) wanted the Remain camp to win… all are devastated at the result, some afraid for the long term effects on their jobs.
(Many work for international companies who rely on free movement of key workers both to AND from the UK and Europe).
Many in the financial sector have done their homework and predict that the UK will be worse off in the long run. These are well educated, intelligent people who have worked not just in the Netherlands but also in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, New York , London, Frankfurt, etc during their careers.
This is not an emotional statement, these are the facts about how those people feel. Some are angry that although they are born and bred UK citizens, the have worked for their international companies here for so long that they were deemed not entitled to vote.
They might not live in the UK but all have family there, go back regularly, have property (some even employ others in separate businesses) there and planned to retire back in a place they thought was “home”.
Yes, I know that some of the other commenters disagreed, and appear (I hope unintentionally) to express that in a very negative way, but we are ALL entitled to our opinions but there is no need to express them in a nasty way.
I am relating the facts of the opinions of the UK people I know. Their feelings on the matter matter too. Both sides should be able to express their joy or disgust without being vilified for it or without attacking the “other side”.
Time will tell if leaving will bring financial benefits and a better way of life for the UK, I can only hope that honest hard working people both there and in the EU are not casualties of the process at any stage.
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Thank you SO much for your comment, Kiwi. We have no idea of the long term implications both for British expats abroad or expats living in the UK and right now it feels like we are living in limbo. The UK is also in turmoil and the racists are out in strength.
It is surprising most of those who voted Leave were from areas of the UK who benefited most from EU funding – Wales being the highest. They are already screaming they want the government to promise their funding will remain the same, which does not seem fair to me if everyone else has to tighten their belt. Hey guys… you cast your vote now suffer the consequences good or bad.
I feel so sorry for the people who will lose their jobs as a result of Brexit and for those whose business will suffer as a result.
The ship is sinking and there are no lifeboats, no jackets, nada; only those wearing a smug smile still standing on deck with the unwavering belief they are right and said ship will turn into a submarine.
We will see.
Interesting you picked up on:
“Yes, I know that some of the other commenters disagreed, and appear (I hope unintentionally) to express that in a very negative way, but we are ALL entitled to our opinions but there is no need to express them in a nasty way.” this is what we are dealing with in real life and I’ve given up arguing the point because we are only shouted down.
This made me smile
View from Wales: town showered with EU cash votes to leave EU
In Ebbw Vale, with little immigration and perhaps more EU investment than any other UK small town, the sense of injustice is greater than the sum of the facts
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/25/view-wales-town-showered-eu-cash-votes-leave-ebbw-vale
Onwards…
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The wonderful thing about our “ISLAND MENTALITY”it make us look outward for opportunities and not inward. History proves this we traded with the world and we can do it again. Let’s take the many opportunities out there rather than spend our lives and our children’s lives propping up a broken bureacratic monster
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Canada’s Rex Murphy: “a lot of people who voted Leave saw a massive power grab underway, the creation of a super-entity that had contempt for local sensibilities, was insulated from every notion of accountability and regarded the individual citizens of its forced-march member states as kulaks and peasants of a new order. No wonder the Europhiles lost. Those who voted to leave weren’t stupid. They were just angry.”
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The ‘Leavers’ were in the majority; and please don’t bring up the ‘flawed information’ argument as neither side was particularly angelic in that regard.
I believe more people than is generally assumed were voting for democracy, using the last available democratic opportunity.
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Not sure where you get your information about the cost of Brexit. Perhaps Project Fear.
Whatever the economic outcome I am pleased that the supremacy of EU law over UK law will cease. That was the main issue for me.
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Time will certainly tell who will be gaining or losing from leaving the European Union. In my humble opinion there will be more losers than winners, in Britain and in certain European countries who traded with Britain.
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Looking on from the other side of the world I wonder whether xenophobia did not play a prominent part in the very narrow ‘Leave’ margin. Am not surprised to learn about the huge numbers protesting. Do wonder tho’ whether this is not the thin end of the wedge with a number of other European countries demanding referendums and possibly deciding the same. Quo Vadis Britain? Quo Vadis Europe?
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