B. E. Andre, author of With
Blood and Scars, is a British person of Polish descent. She sends this
report:
***
I've been asked to
write this blog post about my feelings regarding Brexit. I won't include any
links in here because they could be considered biased; so if you are interested
in anything I mention, the information is all out there – just Google. This isn't
an essay – just me and you, the reader, sitting having a chat, except that your
mouth is covered in packing tape. If any comments are left, I'm afraid I won't
be responding to them. I am worn out with campaigning and explaining myself.
We've had a seismic few
days in the UK. I got hardly any sleep on Thursday night as the votes were
being counted. By early morning I knew it was all over. Britain had voted to
leave the European Union. I can only describe what I felt as freefall. Then, throughout
the day, I had moments when it seemed as if I were walking on a giant water
bed, never knowing how the fabric would rise up around me with each step. I'd
freefall again, tears would well up… I wasn't the only one experiencing this,
and by the end of Friday, I knew that nearly all my friends were equally horrified
and in a similar mood to me. I was shocked when a male friend admitted in a
phone conversation that he was sitting at home, glass of beer in hand, crying.
And, for some reason, the story of Archduke Ferdinand kept popping into my head
throughout the day.
What had just under
half of the people in the UK done to us? Why hadn't they read or listened to
the experts' advice? Why had they allowed themselves to be influenced by increasingly
idiotic and inflammatory memes? They seemed to think that leaving the EU was
like making an exit from a party – swig back your drink, pick up your coat, say
goodbye, and close the door behind you. A typical filer à l'anglaise departure. No further consequences. Easy as
that. But the rest of us value the EU
for all it has done for us. When I was on a road trip in Poland two years ago
with a couple of English friends, I asked them about the Funded by the EU signs all over the country. 'Doesn't it make you angry
that your money is going to Poland?' The answer I received was, 'Not at all. It's
a rebirth.'
Obviously, the EU also
has many faults; in this, it's like a friend with a chronic but manageable
condition. He's covered in acne: we love him nonetheless. And if we get him
some medication, we can make him better. That's what we should have been doing
– reforming the EU from within, as a Member State.
The reasons we are Brexiting
(or, are we?) are now becoming clear. Many people – very many – had voted purely
on the immigration issue without a scrap of knowledge about what the EU has
actually done for them and what the ramifications of leaving could be. Indeed,
Google reported a surge of questions related to the EU after voting. People now admit they didn't understand and had no
idea the Leave camp lied – lies that have been gradually exposed over the
weekend. Meanwhile, the financial markets are all over the place – down, a
rally, down again. And the lack of stability or something to grab hold of is
wearing people out. The last time I looked, sterling was at a 31-year low. My
pension is tied up in stocks and shares – and let me tell you, it is shrinking.
During all previous vicissitudes I've been very calm about things: share prices
go down, wait long enough, then they go up.
Will there be another
referendum? Are we going to end up lumbered with that lying, philandering, bouffanted
buffoon Boris Johnson as our Prime Minister? (I believe there's something
similar going on in the US...) Even if, in our moments of wild optimism, we say
to ourselves 'it will be OK in the end' – how long will that take? Five years?
Ten?
Now Johnson is
back-pedalling and/or changing his mind by the hour. He knows that, having
engineered this damn mess, it's up to him to sort it out. But he doesn't want to do it. Setting Article
50 in motion is like pulling a nuclear trigger: he's too scared to touch it. By
law the UK is allowed to hold another referendum, and more than three million
people have signed a petition asking the government to do just that. It transpires
that many respondents live outside the UK, so the whole thing has somehow
become invalid. It may have become valid again by the time you are reading this
– who knows? It's a laugh a minute over here.
Another pre-referendum worry
has come to fruition. Brexit has opened the door for racists and fascist groups,
as we on the Remain side knew it would. Twitter and Facebook are awash with
examples of race crimes, defined here as crimes against people of other ethnicities or religions. Poles and Muslims are
amongst the most targeted. Good Poles, decent people, who have migrated to the
UK, made a decent life and want to stay here are receiving hate mail through
their post-boxes. Nothing – so far – has made them consider returning to Poland
(although more on that below). Perhaps when they came here they were a little
surprised about how multi-cultural the United Kingdom is, but they soon got
used it and manage to live in harmony with their neighbours. On a personal
note, on two occasions last Friday, the day of the results, I witnessed a
harangue about Poles in the UK. One was from my ophthalmologist. He has no idea
that my parents were Polish, I speak and read Polish, and I return to Poland
often. The second diatribe came when I was sitting at Costa Coffee; three middle-aged
people were spewing out versions of the memes I mentioned before. 'Take back
our country! Take back our country! They're taking our benefits, having loads
of children and sending their money back to their own countries!'
And it is true, they
are sending money back. But as long as they pay their taxes, Madam, light up
one of your Lambert and Butler's and mind your own bloody business.
We have become a
country divided. The Leavers now find themselves somewhat vilified. I have no
doubt that (very) many of them aren't racists, but they allied themselves to a
group of people who are. If you mention racism, they quickly respond 'But that's
not me, not me.' Do you see another irony? They are now experiencing being
shunned by their Remain friends. Perhaps we should invent a new word: Brexanoia
– paranoia associated with having let down the whole country, and a denial of responsibility.
At one point one of my acquaintances suggested this could lead to civil war. I
don't believe that for a minute – that is
a little bit crazy. Nevertheless, as I walked through town today I sensed
something of the cavaliers and roundheads going on around me. You see, Dear Reader,
we are now suspicious of each other. In addition, because the racist attacks
have increased so much, we – the non-racists – feel we must be vigilant and
make sure other people are Okay. I no longer dare speak to my mother in Polish
either. Me – I can deal with any nastiness that comes my way, but I'm not
prepared to let my 80-year-old mama suffer.
In a moment of madness
at the weekend, I wondered whether I'd been prescient when I wrote my novel With Blood and Scars. Nonsense, I know.
Although it's mainly a homage to my parents' Polonia post-WW2 generation, WBAS
is also a story of racism – Pole against Jew, Brit against Pole, Jew against
Pole, Irishman against Brit etc. - and how this racism can be overcome. Suddenly,
with Brexit, the ideals seem impossible. Suddenly, with Brexit, another war in
Europe also seems to have edged closer.
I was recently called a
'fear-mongering demagogue' on social media. I couldn't be bothered to be
offended; actually, it made me laugh. I don't know my accuser's background.
What does he know – as an American, I mean? How can he judge whether my
concerns are legitimate or not?
Does he have the
faintest concept of the political situation in Europe? Of Visegrad? Of the
shenanigans going on in Poland? Of Jobbik in Hungary? He probably watches Fox
News, for God's sake. Although the UK may be a relatively major player
financially, we are still seen in the US as a little bit cute. The Remainers also looked at the bigger picture. Where the hell does an American find the temerity
to tell me that I'm stupid to want
the EU to stick together? How the hell would you like it, buddy, if New York
and all of California suddenly decided to have nothing to do with the rest of
the United States? Wouldn't you be just the teensiest bit pissed off? Note: please
don't put yourself out to inform me that the United States of America and the "United
States of Europe" are very different. Thank you – I know.
Ah, well. Yes, I'm
angry and tired. Brexit has been the last straw. The first part of the year has
been nothing but exhausting rollercoaster rides with in-flight footage of events
in Poland unfolding. There's another
country divided. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party have, in just over half
a year in power, implemented so many bizarre rules and regulations that I'd
probably have to spend the next three days trying to remember them all. In
brief, they have been playing fast and loose with the constitution; they have installed
their own people in the national media (we can now call it state-run propaganda
); they've changed the right-to-sell land laws; they've allowed logging in the
last primeval forest in Europe; money is flowing to the Catholic Church in
Poland from the state coffers; the education system is about to be overhauled
and will include more patriotic content; their election promise of 500 złoty
benefit per month per child had to be amended - it is now payable only for the
second and subsequent children, and this has resulted in spikes in accessing
social care for children in the two days after payment is made; defence
minister Antoni Macierewicz has been discussing the notion of a volunteer army
– a Christian Militia - and guess where those volunteers might come from… the
ultra ONR (National Radical Camp - Obóz Narodowo Radykalny) who fly their
hateful falanga when and where they
please (in the UK too), while little or nothing is done about their
demonstrations. Erasmus students in Białystok were told to hide indoors on
campus when the ONR demonstrated recently.
As in England, racism
is rife. The moths from Pandora's Box are spreading everywhere.
And finally, on the
Poland story, there's Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS, who continues to
offend the families of the people who died in the Smoleńsk air disaster. Just
recently he called for the bodies to be exhumed again. One of the relatives had a justifiable suggestion. I
paraphrase - "Dig up your own brother before you start digging up my wife.
After all, haven't you said that the bomb must have been under his seat?"
If you can't remember the Smoleńsk accident, remember Google is your friend.
Here I'd like to remind
people, especially Polonians who don't speak a word of Polish apart from bigos and pierogies (sic), and who can't read more than Wesołych Świąt, and who haven't been to Poland in the last 25
years, not to presume to tell me, as has happened before, that I should be more
patriotic and support the PiS government. Why should I? Because it's Polish?
Fella, are you nuts? So was the
Communist government Polish – you know... there were Poles in it. The current government is only two steps away from
other end of the spectrum, so why should I feel any loyalty to it either? For
the record, I have always been just slightly left of centre in my political
leanings, the merest smidgeon.
A year ago I was a
relatively happy person. I loved both my countries – the UK and Poland. I felt
patriotic towards both. Today, as I see nationalism etching symbols of hate,
intolerance and exclusion into their well-worn and much-loved patinas, I just
want to cry.
