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.
5 Top Reasons for Staying in Europe
Mrs May and her friends have had two years to articulate a policy on Britain’s future relationship with Europe. They cannot make up their minds as to what they want and are still chasing a “have your cake and eat it” fantasy. The other 27 EU members have made...
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The Perils of Uncertainty and Political Dishonesty
I suppose that most of us expect people with whom we interact to be reliable and worthy of our trust. Even if we don’t know them, we generally assume that they will do what they say they will do, they will be punctual, and they will behave honestly. We tend to...
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Two Years after the Referendum
This is the text of an audio recording, submitted to Ben Chambers for inclusion in the June 2018 edition of Sixteen Million Rising https://www.mixcloud.com/SixteenMillionRising/. It comes up after Summertime at 1 hour 52 minutes into Ben’s Episode 21...
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Brexit Illusions
The idea that Britain can expect to “have its cake and eat it” is “pie in the sky” Hopefully it is at last dawning on voters that it really is not possible for Britain to enjoy the many benefits of being a member of the EU if it opts out of the responsibilities...
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More influence if we stay (as reproduced by London4Europe at http://www.london4europe.co.uk/more_influence_if_we_stay)
We have learned so much Our correspondent, who writes under the name Future of our Children, shows how the Brexit debate may have inadvertently strengthened Britain’s future influence inside Europe – though only if we use the People’s Vote to Remain. We...
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Brexit Poses Risks to Reciprocal Healthcare Programmes
Brexit Poses Risks to Reciprocal Healthcare Programmes One of the great unsung achievements of the European Union has been its creation of highly efficient but yet simple ways of guaranteeing us free or subsidised access to national health services in other...
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EFSA
The European Food Safety Authority is one of the 40 or so decentralised agencies of the European Union that do much to improve our welfare and to assure the smooth conduct of our relations with the other 27 EU member states. If Britain leaves the EU and the single...
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!