Maybe we differ in senses of humour significantly. Anyway, I think your comments in this thread indicate the issue of trying to learn something about a situation when some of those telling you about it are American - meaning simply that you're less likely to get an accurate/informed opinion. To be clear, you may get a very accurate and informed opinion - it's entirely possible
But I think you are less likely.
Case in point... Is Islamaphobia an issue in the UK? Not really, no. As with any population you have a percentage of bigots and a tabloid media who will report things that increase sales. People buy into that fear - but they definitely are a minority and not the majority. Furthermore, the immigrants coming from Europe
aren't (predominantly) muslim either. But immigration isn't their only fear (I mean argument)... not by a long stretch. Just that at present the immigration issue ("they took our jobs and use all our services, costing us money without contributing anything in return!") got a lot of traction during the campaign - mainly due to the economic climate we currently find ourselves in.
However, it's multifaceted. They believe we're paying huge amounts of money to an undemocratic, un-audited (that's very true), bunch of Europeans who control our laws and ride roughshod over anything the country itself thinks/wants. They're aware that we may take an economic hit, but they think it's short term and we'll be way better off afterwards as the money will pour in. They do think lots of immigrants from the EU lower our wages, take all the jobs, take all the housing, cost us a lot in various means to keep them - and probably cause more crime. There is no statistical evidence to give weight to this; quite the opposite in fact.
The problem is for years there has been a drip feed against the EU by the media for decades. A big part of it is that EU legislation seems to allow utterly bonkers things to happen which makes us all roll our eyes and say "that bloody interfering EU!". So for those not fearing immigration, or not caring hugely, this is another angle which means they've
always wanted us to leave the EU.
Here's a great example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ritain-officials-tell-Bolivian-immigrant.html
Feel free to read the article, it's a genuine bit of news. That damned Article 8 of the EU Convention on Human rights! *shakes fist*. They even have commentators from several places saying how shocking the ruling is...
The media, however, aren't reporting the truth. They're playing to their crowd... knowing they'll be spitting bile and angry over this perceived meddling of our laws - and buying the paper to read about it.
The reality is the cat played no part whatsoever in the case; the reality was the Home Office hadn't applied it's own rules to the Gentlemen in question.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...grant-allowed-to-stay-because-of-pet-cat.html
But examples of such reporting (misleading the public) are legion.
So whilst immigration played a part (which has absolutely
nothing to do with Islamophobia whatsoever), it had people voting for reasons of rules of law, fear of the EU closer integration, loss of national identity, economic well being, and yes... even "independence!11".
The fact that without being an independent nation we could never hold a referendum on EU membership seems lost on them.
I voted to remain. I still think it's a mistake to leave - but mainly because of lost opportunities. I would love the chance to work, visa free, in dozens of EU countries; I also love our EU family of nations - despite their issues. But that doesn't mean I love the EU entirely; it desperately needs reform. Just once we're out... we're out. That's a mistake imo.
I should also point out that many areas voting out of the EU have small amounts of migrants. Some rely heavily on the EU for trade (the areas exporting the most to the EU tended to vote out the most too! They'll take big hits if the companies employing the people decide to move). There's a
perception that migrants are causing job issues, but reality is wayy different. For example, currently there are 750,000 job vacancies in the UK. That's enough jobs for every single EU migrant for the next 4 years.
Then since the vote the fun starts. The £350 million a week we pay to the EU won't go to the NHS (part of the leave campaign slogan). Furthermore, they can't really stop the immigration; we need it.
So all that "Turkey is about to join the EU and flood us with up to 80 million inhabitants" (they're not about to join, they've been in negotiations since 1988 and have passed just 1 of the 30+ checks required to gain EU membership), so the immigration argument is out.
France immediately says we should look after our own borders and stop trying to stop immigrants in Calais (Major of Calais wants UK border police to go home - basically so they can wave migrants onto the boat i imagine
).
Furthermore, if we want access to the common market (like Switzerland and Norway) we'll have to accept all the EU regulations anyway... and free movement of people. And we'll have to pay for the privileged... without being able to make any impact upon creating / changing the laws either.
Basically... most of the arguments for leave are either found to be significantly lacking, or will be irrelevant as we'll have to accept them for trade purposes.
The alternative is not having access to the common market. What the impact will be from that I don't know and haven't bothered reading. Kind of stopped caring at present, just wait to see what happens and hope the small minority of racist arseholes don't manage to drag the UK's name through the mud.