The immediate legacy of the referendum is a Dis-United Kingdom, split communities, eroded friendships, family rifts, and pervasive uncertainty.
Brexit’s biggest flaw is that its success hangs on the creativity and hard work of the young whose votes said clearly that they want to stay within EU.
Of those aged between 18 and 24, 71% voted to remain: amongst them, 80% of women opted for staying in the EU.
High Time for Honesty
Here is the transcript of a short opinion piece that I recorded for Ben Chambers’ Sixteen Million Rising March 2019 show. It can be found in SMR Episode 30, starting at 2 hours 41 minutes. https://www.mixcloud.com/SixteenMillionRising/smr-ep30-high-noon/ We...
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A Little Bit of Honesty Would Go a Long Way
“Owning up to the truth” is a strange but revealing expression because, while seemingly virtuous, it implies an admission of lying or, at the very least, deliberately concealing the truth. Much has been said in the media about the lies that were propagated by...
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Time to Call a Spade a Spade
Time to call a spade a spade I was very happy to read Jonathan Freedland’s article in today’s Guardian. His self-explanatory title was “We can’t wait for a people’s vote; make the case against Brexit right now.” Almost every day, I receive a message calling on me to...
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Brexit End-game?
My wife asked me this morning where I thought that we were heading with the Brexit process. I have tried to collect my thoughts in this short article. At the speed at which things are moving, it probably has a shelf-life of only 24 hours! Are we moving into a...
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The People’s Vote risks becoming May’s lifeline
Now is the time to revoke Article 50 Theresa May has flogged a dead horse. She is now up against the rails. The EU won’t reopen negotiations on her Brexit plan and, even if they offered concessions on the “backstop” issue, it would not win parliamentary...
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The only way to stop 3 more years of uncertainty
Approving May’s plan will prolong the uncertainty and divisiveness that has mucked up our lives since 2016 for at least another 3 years, and a “no-deal” would probably be worse. The only way of letting our lives return to normal and having the government focus...
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Can the UK stop Brexit?
On 27th November, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is to consider the Scottish request for clarification as to whether the UK can unilaterally stop the Brexit process and retain its EU membership. If the Court confirms that revocation of Article 50 is...
read moreHealing Intergenerational Divisions
This site is about healing divisions, mainly within families, between friends and in communities. We focus especially on inter-generational divisions within those families in which the older generation voted to leave the EU and the younger generations opted to remain.
These are the most painful divisions because they damage the natural bonds between grandparents, parents and their children that hold families together: they mean that millions of young children are already growing up in divided families. But they are also the fault-lines that can be drawn together most readily as all those involved have a vested interest in family unity.
The first step in tackling this is through trying to restore intergenerational trust within divided households. This implies talking frankly about the problems faced by split families. It does not mean blaming grandparents or calling on them to renounce their beliefs and values, but simply inviting them to signal their respect for the aspirations of their young.
If this happens on a sufficient scale, our leaders will sense a mood change amongst older voters that will embolden them to think twice about the reckless course on which they are now embarked.
For more thoughts on this and how we might approach the healing process
Get In Touch
We know how difficult it is to start talking about these things, and that we have to learn from each other. This is why we have created this site as a place for sharing ideas, experiences and information between individuals, groups and campaigners.
Please chat with your family and friends about these thoughts and raise them for discussion with any groups that you are in. Please comment on this and tell us about the situations in your own families and communities and how they are being handled. Send us lots of stories, photos and videos that we can post here!