My Ten Strongest Misgivings About Brexit Ranked and Explained to Americans

Perhaps I'm getting a taste for this politics thing? The real effects of the UK leaving the European Union will be evident at the start of 2021. As an academic, who married a Dutch woman and who enjoyed travelling and camping in different countries, I think you can guess that I was never an enthusiast for this project. Democracy is, however, democracy. Its downside is that people can always be 'sold' a false prospectus. Usually (but not in this case), you get a chance to reverse it at the next election. At the risk of boring my readers from the USA (my largest cohort), I would ask them to think on how they might react to, say California, narrowly deciding to leave the other 51 states. Leaving, would mean that only Californian politicians (love them or hate them) could decide who had the right to live in (being married to a Californian might not be sufficient, as is the case here) or even enter their state. Californian politicians would also control what goods could be imported. They could make their own laws and set their own taxes, without reference to the other 51 (so there would be State but no Federal rules). California would have its own police and armed forces, who might or might not have good relations with their counterparts in the other states. Bureaucracy would have to be greatly and expensively increased to 'control' things. Of course, the 'boot would also be on the other foot', as the 51 would have to collectively decide how to deal with California and the Californians (California is big but it's much smaller than the 51). I appreciate that the parallel with Brexit is inexact but some of the following could also become issues if California also went for sovereignty over economics/convenience. My top ten Brexit gripes are :- 1. It stops the UK from being part of a powerful collective, dealing with environmental issues such as climate change, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, animal and plant diseases et cetera (in spite of the fact that environmental factors do not recognise national boundaries); 2. It stops the UK from being part of a powerful collective, when interacting with apparently ubiquitous but often tax-averse, mega corporations (small countries are easy to pick off); 3. I also think that UK science will be in a poorer situation after Brexit. Science is generally a collective activity and, being in the EU, greatly facilitated this (I would even say that Brits had a natural advantage, because English is the language of most science publications). I enjoyed my many collaborations with colleagues in other EU countries.; 4. I am saddened that the ease of travel for Brits, in EU countries, will be greatly curtailed (the easy recognition of driving licences without 'green cards' and provision of EU-wide medical assistance both go. Visas will be needed, for longer stays).; 5. Mutual recognition of qualifications (such as ability to practice archetecture, medicine, nursing or dentistry) will cease, along with removal of the right to work in other EU countries. Pre-Brexit, the UK did very well, in terms of both providing job opportunities for its young citizens and attracting skilled individuals into its own industries and universities; 6. Loss of our ability to trade really freely might, I feel, result in higher food prices and reduced choice in terms of what we can buy (wine and food are 2 of my enthusiasms); 7. As I think antagonisms are reduced, when one can experience a wide range of cultures and traditions (I appreciate that some people appear threatened by differences), I am saddened that Brexit is likely to make people of the UK more insular.; 8. The ERASMUS scheme (I was an early enthusiast), enabled students from any EU country to do part of their studies in another member state. This gave UK students a chance for a 'taster' of what it might be like to study or work abroad. I am unhappy that students in the UK (except Northern Ireland) will cease to have access to the scheme.; 9. I think it's silly that the UK will no longer be part of pan-European mechanisms that deal with crime and terrorism. and 10. Brexit panders to a peculiar, and I think unattractive, English (I am English, by birth) character-flaw of believing in their own exceptionalism. I can't see many positives in Brexit and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.