United Kingdom — At this time last week, citizens of the U.K. turned out in record numbers to cast their votes on whether to remain under the control of the European Union or leave it. When the final votes were counted, a collective “Oh, shit” could be heard from both sides as it was revealed the Leave campaign had won — and there was only a moment of silence before all hell broke loose. Headline after headline popped up predicting impending doom, and people all over the world started to wonder exactly what this meant.
Last Friday morning, after the results were announced, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, citing the “will of the people” as his reason. He took his ball and went home after months of urging citizens it was in their best interest to remain in the E.U. This was not his mess to clean up, and he refused to do so. As stocks plummeted,billions of dollars were lost and panic mounted. A petition for a re-do of the vote circulated, gaining over three million signatures after citizens complained they hadn’t expected their vote to count. Media cried “failed democracy,” and the Washington Post even went so far as to say “some things should just shouldn’t be decided by the people.”
With little time left for the dust to settle, it was announced Saturday that Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn hadfired Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn, causing British jaws to hit the floor for the second day in a row. As Corbyn scrambled to reshuffle, Shadow cabinet members dropped like flies as one after another resigned. On Tuesday, the remaining members overwhelmingly voted against Corbyn in a no-confidence motion, but the Labour Leader has stood firm and refuses to resign, despite calls from the former Prime Minister and other high-ranking officials to stand down.
As all of this was going on, violent crime skyrocketed in the streets. As we previously reported:
“Scores of incidents of hate crime and racial abuse have been recorded since last week’s Brexit vote. Attacks have included the verbal targeting of those on the street who appear visibly different, an increase in immigration rhetoric, violent assaults, and vandalism on buildings.”
Unfortunately, while there were many reasons politicians and citizens wanted out of the E.U., one of the issues that really caught steam during the campaign was immigration. The campaign was called “xenophobic” and “racist” by the Remain camp, which favored the E.U.’s policy of welcoming the influx of immigrants and refugees. While police seem to be cracking down on the violence, the escalation in attacks across the U.K. is not getting the attention it should — everyone’s attention is on the three-ring circus performance in British Parliament.
Meanwhile, Leave champion Nigel Farage made waves in Parliament on Wednesday when he addressed the E.U. for the first time since the votes were counted. In the video he uploaded to Twitter and Facebook, which immediately went viral, Farage started his fiery speech off with one of many jabs to come:
“Funny, isn’t it? When I came here 17 years ago and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well, I have to say, you’re not laughing now, are you?”
He also touched on the possibility the E.U. might attempt to make an example of the U.K. in trade negotiations going forward and reminded the assembly they have just as much to lose by making trade difficult. Wednesday did bring some good news, however, as the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) closed at the highest it’s been since April — making up for lost ground and then some.
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Back to the political house of cards, where daggers are still flying. With the Prime Minister position wide open, Conservative favorite Boris Johnson was expected to toss his hat into the ring. Enter Michael Gove, a fellow Conservative who, up until this point, was expected to throw his support behind Johnson. Despite the fact Gove had previously and adamantly stated he didn’t want to be Prime Minister, he announced Thursday he didn’t’ have faith Boris could provide the kind of leadership the Tories need. Rather, Gove said he did, in fact, want to be Prime Minister — effectively stabbing Boris Johnson directly in the front with millions of people watching. It wasn’t too long before Johnson decided he would not be throwing his hat into the ring, after all. Also coming forward to fight for the leadership position were Angela Leadson, Liam Fox, Theresa May, and Stephen Crabb.
This leaves both political parties leaderless and at each other’s throats in an unstable economy, while violence erupts on the streets. And this is just week one.
This article (Chaos Continues to Consume the UK a Week After Brexit Vote) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Josie Wales andtheAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article at [email protected].
