We are all in this together.

Following BREXIT there have been thousands, perhaps millions of words written about the cause of the rejection by a majority of people in Britain to remain under the political control of The European Union. 

 Immigration and the changes that immigration has brought particularly to urban areas, changes which go beyond the dress and colour but involve culture and religion.

For years the people in power, particularly the people in Parliament had ignored the calls for a curb on the numbers that were coming in and importantly using existing resources such as school places and hospital facilities, never mind housing. The populations of inner Bradford and Burnley were asked initially to be understanding and patient, that over time the immigrants would mix and blend in, would adapt and consolidate our own culture and the norms which govern us. The opposite has happened since the early settlers gathered their communities became ghettos, ethnic no go areas which slowly spread gobbling up the surrounding areas as the locals retreated. Today through the force of "collective identity" where allegiance to ethnicity and religion binds people to vote and place their own voices on the political and legislative councils, to the extent they the immigrant community, which never assimilated, are now the power in the local community. Pockets of Bangladeshi or Pakistani influence and culture are entrenched in the society of many urban towns and cities across the country and one would have to look hard to recognise the Anglo Saxon substructure which was there previously. 

Does this matter ? 

Any people who are constrained by their pay packet to live work and play within the confines of a territory which they define as theirs are going to feel unhappy if others take over their patch. If the struggle for meagre resources is made difficult, if their calls for fair play are ignored by metropolitan London then they will reject what ever comes out of metropolitan London what ever the cost. Remember the cost to them is relative. Already there are few jobs, the housing stock is poor, and the schools continue to under educate their children. Is it any wonder there is a deficit of trust in the establishment and a referendum  a moment in time when they can stick up 'two fingers'.

Our society has become evermore divided. The "trickle down" economics of the neo liberals hasn't happened and the wealth of the country resides in fewer and fewer hands with whole swathes of our society forgotten. These people are not swayed by the fears of the bankers and the industrialists. They already  can't find work and they therefore can't open a bank account. Where are they to fall.  They are already at the bottom and even if it gets worse there is the devilish satisfaction in knowing "we are all in this together" !!!