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.
Grandparental Instincts Distracted by Facebook Messages
Neither of us has a Facebook account. Perhaps we are just too old-fashioned to be excited about sharing intimate information with our friends and relations. In any case, my fingers aren’t nimble enough to type out text messages with the same ease and speed as younger...
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Grandparental Instincts Distracted by Facebook Messages
Neither of us has a Facebook account. Perhaps we are just too old-fashioned to be excited about sharing intimate information with our friends and relations. In any case, my fingers aren’t nimble enough to type out text messages with the same ease and speed as younger...
read more
The best way to stop courting disaster: revoke Article 50
After two years of dithering, Theresa May has at last sought to define the main elements of what she hopes will be the UK’s future relationship with the European Union. However, the Chequers Plan, though endorsed by her cabinet, quickly came under attack from both...
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An Early End to Much Ado about Nothing
Wouldn’t it would be rather nice if life could soon just return to normal? For the past 24 months since the EU referendum, almost everyone in Britain has been hit in one way or another by the uncertainties sparked by a government that has been incapable of...
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The People’s Vote March Cocked a Snook at the Brexit Bullies
It has taken me several days to work out why last Saturday’s march in support of a People’s Vote was so important. At the time, I had an intuitive feeling that it marked a real turning point in the tortured Brexit saga, but it was not immediately clear to me why this...
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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...
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!