Brexit

I signed up for three Imagine events today but I went to only one. I’m flying to Bristol tomorrow for a job interview. I had to prepare a 10-minute presentation for the interview, so today I buckled down. I created 15 slides Monday and Tuesday and today I’m polishing my narrative and delivery.

The one event I attended (more Post It notes!) was a discussion around how Northern Ireland will be affected by the June vote on whether or not the UK should leave the European Union. All present agreed it would be a financial and cultural disaster. Assembly candidates are being selected here in May, so they are being forced to take a stand on Brexit. The largest party, the Democratic Unionist Party, is pro-Brexit, while all the other parties want to remain in the union.

The meeting opened my eyes to issues I never thought of. There are a lot of workers here from Eastern Europe. They will lose their right to be here. The border between north and south will no longer be open, requiring customs inspections. British students will lose access to European universities under the highly popular Erasmus program (it’s like a free exchange program). We discussed selling British stocks, assuming British companies will suffer from losing trade privileges. The list went on and on. The gains the British First people see from leaving Europe strike me as illusory. It’s amazing that the vote is projected to be so close.
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