(Disclaimer: La Tonique Media LLC does not represent any political ideology. While we do not espouse any political beliefs, we do seek to provide a balance perspective by incorporating voices from both sides of the political spectrum.)

By Elaine Sanderson

If Brexit has proven anything, it’s that Britain is broken. Yet, the most compelling question we can ask is: Did Brexit break Britain, or was there something already drastically wrong? The EU referendum vote of 2016 should have been simple, the eligible UK electorate would vote upon a majority that decided whether or not they were to stay or leave the European Union. What it did instead was uncover a set of issues that had been bubbling under the surface.

In a report from 2014/15, 21% of the population were living in low income households. A figure that seems disgraceful for a first world nation. Whilst the referendum result was a slim majority with a 52% to 48% split in favour of leaving the EU, the breakdown of results among constituencies appeared to be where the real issues came to light. The strongest support for Brexit was found in the parts of the country where income was low and there were few opportunities to get ahead. This contrasted to the areas where the support for remain was strong -- affluent, highly educated constituencies. The divide is clear, those finding themselves without the means necessary to survive were much more inclined to vote leave, whilst those on the opposite end of the scale generally opted to vote remain. It seemed that the Brexit vote was driven by those economically disadvantaged, the left-behind who had been refused any progression. Was this, at heart, a protest vote at the pro-EU prime minister, begging him to do more?

An extensive leave campaign was carried out by various politicians, headed by Nigel Farage, a leader for closing Britain’s borders and nationalist views. Advertisements were broadcast depicting how poor those from Turkey were, and that if they were to join the ever expanding EU, these were the sort of people free to settle within British borders. In other words, they were ready to steal jobs and live off the state. It’s no surprise that those in poverty ridden, high unemployment areas were more inclined to vote leave. Sadiq Khan, current mayor of London, called it “project hate”. Furthermore, there was a 41% increase in hate crime offenses following the vote: an uprising of bottled hostility, using national sovereignty as poor justification. This was, and still is, heavily fueled by newspapers ran by the elite. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance stated that The Sun and Daily Mail, when reporting on immigration and refugees, were contributing to “creating an atmosphere of hostility and rejection”.  

Britain isn’t just divided in terms of wealth and views, the divide has pushed Scotland to hold the want to be an independent country for the second time. Within Scottish parliament, the Scottish Nationalist Party said a second referendum was justified if they were forced out of the European Union. 62% of the Scottish electorate voted to remain in the EU. 

The ruling Conservative party seemed to divide themselves more in the wake of the referendum. Within the campaign months, the prime minister was in battle with his own members. Michael Gove and Boris Johnson were heavily involved in the leave campaign, whilst Cameron was actively pro-EU. When the result of the referendum was finalized, the opposition party, Labour, attempted a ‘coup’ with policy makers taking a stand and quitting, trying to force opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn to quit. Meanwhile, the Conservative party were dealing with a leadership contest as Cameron resigned from his post as PM after failing to get the result he desired. Nothing ties together the signs of a broken country than a broken parliament.

Britain is fractured and Brexit allowed us to uncover the reasons why. Poverty rates continue to be high, as do hate crimes, ‘taking back control of British borders’ is nationalist propaganda spread from newspapers ran by the elite, and both the majority and opposition parties are divided. It’s clear to see how Brexit has been brought into reality from discontents that had been settling within the British public for the last decade. Polls conducted prior to the 2016 referendum stated that the public were much more concerned with issues surrounding education, housing, health and welfare. It wasn’t animosity towards the European Union that resulted in a majority leave vote, austerity measures and internal disregard of the modern British society did. Issues that could have been solved if the government hadn’t denied themselves blame. This was in response, a protest vote. A shouting statement that their country was broken and they wanted it fixed.

Elaine is a political writer for La Tonique. You can follow Elaine on Twitter @sando_99.