Pondering on the referendum as it begins to sink in. Without fear of blowing things out of proportion, to me it's... well, it's a catastrophe.
I grew up loving the idea of 'Europe'. Grimms, Tintin and Asterix; Belle and Sebastian, Jeux Sans Frontieres and European footie on the telly; camping holidays; the first album I ever bought being Dutch (Focus 3), followed by Krautrock, Heldon, Magma and a fixation with all things Eurorock; Bowie's 'Berlin' period; getting into films by Herzog, Fassbender, Truffaut, Goddard etc; living in Strasbourg for a year; an Italian girlfriend; the food; the edginess & mystery of the Iron Curtain...
When we joined the EU in 1973, it somehow brought all the above closer to home. Sure, the institutions of Brussels and Strasbourg were (still are) kind of impenetrable and aloof, and some of the directives, the Common Agricultural Policy etc aren't perfect. But anything that brings countries together is a good thing in my book. And of course there's never been a war between EU countries (the Balkans was pre those countries joining, right?).
But the thing that really depresses me is what the vote signifies. Basically, it says We don't like you. We don't want to be part of Europe, we're proud Little Englanders, we don;t want you coming into our country and taking our jobs, we can't be bothered to speak other languages and who won the war anyway?
I grew up loving the idea of 'Europe'. Grimms, Tintin and Asterix; Belle and Sebastian, Jeux Sans Frontieres and European footie on the telly; camping holidays; the first album I ever bought being Dutch (Focus 3), followed by Krautrock, Heldon, Magma and a fixation with all things Eurorock; Bowie's 'Berlin' period; getting into films by Herzog, Fassbender, Truffaut, Goddard etc; living in Strasbourg for a year; an Italian girlfriend; the food; the edginess & mystery of the Iron Curtain...
When we joined the EU in 1973, it somehow brought all the above closer to home. Sure, the institutions of Brussels and Strasbourg were (still are) kind of impenetrable and aloof, and some of the directives, the Common Agricultural Policy etc aren't perfect. But anything that brings countries together is a good thing in my book. And of course there's never been a war between EU countries (the Balkans was pre those countries joining, right?).
But the thing that really depresses me is what the vote signifies. Basically, it says We don't like you. We don't want to be part of Europe, we're proud Little Englanders, we don;t want you coming into our country and taking our jobs, we can't be bothered to speak other languages and who won the war anyway?
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