This idea of Britain being great again is a complex statement. A lot of people have related it to more 'empire' type thinking, which I'm sure some people foster but really we're talking about a time of around the late 70's and early 80's.
To explain you need to understand what was happening at this point in time. There was a recession early on but the economy was changing for the better. A prime minister was in power, Margret Thatcher. Depending on where you live and how you came out economically at the other end determines your feelings for this particular person.
Ronald Reagan has a similar divisiveness about him as his policies were very similar to Thatchers. Not sure who copied who. I personally hate both of them for their policies but that's neither here nor there. I'm giving a quick history lesson.
Basically what you have happening in the 80s is the birth of the global market as it is today. You're used to it but growing up in it and dealing with the vast changes it bought has been tough for a lot of people. Gone was the idea of stable employment. Gone to was the idea of large quantities of blue collar jobs. Most importantly, gone was the unions power. Now I have both a good view and a negative view of unions. But I'll leave that for another time.
Basically Margret Thatcher set out to deregulate everything and take the power away from the unions. This is how you know that the UK is very different than the rest of the EU. In the EU the unions still have a lot of power but there is movements in certain countries trying to change that now.
What happened is that she sold off lots of state owned companies. There were strikes by a lot of unions, the biggest being the miners strike that lasted for a over a year. At the end, mines closed, even profitable ones, others were sold off. Thousands of people loss jobs. As the global economy ramped up lots of other industries followed the money to China and other emerging markets seeking cheap manufacturing and labour costs.
So to put this into perspective. The mid and north part of England, where most of this stuff is, is a complete wasteland of people mourning about the past when times were good. Mining, fishing, textiles and all other manufacturing has suffered causing massive economic downturns in the north. However, London continued to thrive regardless. Hence the division within the country.
To add to all this mess, you then bring in free movement of people to the mix from the EU. Immigration starts to soar as Poland and other Eastern European countries enters the EU bringing with it it's own set of complications.
Now due to UK policy, let's be clear about that, not EU, companies have taken advantage of the cheap labour available within these Eastern EU countries. Therefore wages have suffered in areas where wages and employment were problematic already. Add to that the added strain on public services and you can then start to understand the bigger picture here.
Where London has prospered with the influx of immigration as have other areas, the north, south and mid parts of England feel they have suffered from it. They mistrust the politicians, they dislike the EU and blame it for the problems that they have.
The thing is, the policies that have made the big mess out of this has been UK policy, not EU. Successive UK governments have continually pointed to the EU as being the bad guy. So it's not surprising that many people believed that the EU was a bad thing for the UK. Add in the refugee crisis, increases in immigration, the economic downturn in the Euro and all the austerity measures and you can see why selling the EU to the UK populace wasn't going to be easy.
Thing is, the government and even the leave campaign didn't think the UK would vote out. There was no contingency plan for an out vote as they felt it was never going to happen. This is why it's a complete mess at the moment with a big upheaval in the political sphere and why companies aren't sure what to do.
All I know is that I'm waiting to see what happens with the EU talks before I make any permanent plans one way or the other. I don't see the UK being a pleasant place for the next 5-10 years.
thanks
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