It's the end of the world...

Today, I awoke in a world that seemed different. Poorer. Less vibrant. More scary.

The UK, the "country" in which I live, voted to leave the European Union.

I'd like to say that I'm surprised, but I'm not really. The first few results in last night, by the time I went to bed, had already indicated (to me anyway), the inevitable. However, to put some perspective into it, it's a series of agreements with other countries and some common laws. The world is not going to end - far from it, actually. I personally feel it won't be as good for me as before and I think we'll all (bar a few privileged people) will be much worse off, not just in monetary terms as well.

Unusually, this time around I did my homework. I looked at a lot of independent information to clarify what both sides of the argument were trying to say and, for me, the Leave campaign were telling outright lies and making promises that they simply could not keep. I know that that happens in all political vote gathering exercises, but when the outcome is pretty much irreversible, I'd like to think there would be better systems in place to stop this happening. I've been laughing at Trump in the States at his sheer gall, only to realise this morning that the Leave Campaign has pretty much gotten away with the same thing. Both sides were not covering themselves in glory, to be perfectly honest.

Even as the polling stations closed, Nigel Farage was still telling the cameras that Turkey are imminently joining the EU when all the reading I've done from independent sources are indicating it's not even close and could be ten years if not longer.

But not the end of the world.

However, this morning, while sipping my coffee and watching the telly and reading various sources on the internet, the realisation saddened me. I believe that the people have had the wool pulled over their eyes. Sure, there will be people who have legitimate and relevant reasons to vote Leave, but these people are, I would imagine, in the minority - I know FP is one of them. The sound bites I "hear" coming from all corners of the globe suggest to me that people are making the (in my opinion) wrong choice for the wrong reasons.

Ex-pat voters, living in Australia are voting Leave. "English people for English jobs!" they proclaim from Sydney or Melbourne, the hypocrisy obviously passing them by.

Some of the poorer areas of the UK are voting Leave, and they seem to be unaware that, for them, the future in the short to medium term could actually be a lot worse.

Seemingly many undecided voters, rather than abstaining, decided to vote Leave in a puff of logic that makes my little head hurt.

Anecdotal evidence from friends and acquaintances across the country (as well as a few news reports) are suggesting that quite a few Leave voters only did so "because we didn't actually think the Leave vote would win!"

Which leads me to a gut feeling that a lot of Leave votes were a protest vote against the government or even specifically the Conservative Party rather than a genuine interest to leave the EU. And perhaps they don't yet realise that the EU was keeping the Conservative Party in check to a certain extent.

Or, worse, that the Leave vote was a misunderstanding of what control the EU had over immigration and people used it to "complain" about foreigners coming over here, taking our jobs and our housing and increasing NHS waiting lists (which kinda goes back to the ex-pats as well).

Added to that, the baffling vote of Wales, who had arguably the most to lose as an entity with EU withdrawal and the same thing goes to Farmers, another group of people who benefitted largely from EU funding (though were also most vocal about EU restrictions).

World leaders, financial experts, political experts and many other people were encouraging us to remain. Yet, we took our ball and we went home in a huff. And that's how I see the Leave Campaign (not the voters, the actual campaign leaders). There didn't/doesn't seem to be a plan for what we do now we've left. I don't think they know, or even care. That's now the government's problem as far as they're concerned. The government of a country whose economic future, short-term, is screwed and whose international standing has certainly taken a bit of a beating. We might not stand alone, but I do not think our friendships are as strong as they were yesterday. The result yesterday means that the full-on privatisation of the NHS and the disappearance of the BBC as we currently know it have gone from being unthinkable to actual possibilities and, frankly, probable.

I work for a company who's only in the UK because of initial EU funding. I have friends and co-workers who are foreign nationals (from all over the world). And I can't help but feel pessimistic. I know there won't be any overnight change, that the big things are two years away, but I feel really disconnected with 52% of the population of my country.

But it's not the end of the world. That's what I... indeed, everyone who voted Remain (or is currently regretting their Leave vote), needs to remember.