Brexit ‘has unleashed such a set of demons’ on the UK
How does a society that has been so badly fractured begin to heal?
St George flags in the windows and a “Vote Leave” poster on a house in Redcar, northeast England, in 2016. Photograph: Scott Heppell/AFP/Getty Images
To stay or to go is no longer a binary question in Britain, if it ever was to begin with. Between those two poles, there are myriad shades of opinion. There are the remorseful Leavers. The regretful Remainers. The more-hardline-than-ever Leavers. Those who are so fatigued by it all they no longer care what happens.
Then there are the uncategorisable views: like that of the Romanian-born, German-raised, British-dwelling recruitment consultant I spoke to this week, who brings workers in from eastern Europe to do the jobs British labourers won’t, and who still thinks Britain should leave the EU because he’s nostalgic for the old days. It was easier to make money back before the UK’s borders were fully open to eastern Europe, he says.