How to overcome feelings of powerlessness

Ever since the 1980s I have enjoyed driving around Europe and beyond. Back in those days every country had a different currency and every border that was crossed required a changing of currency. Because you could only change notes our pockets were full of coinage that we called ‘shrapnel’. The only way to shift the shrapnel was to give it to charities once we got back to the UK. We didn’t need a Visa at that time but at each border crossing there was passport control with army and police in abundance. It seemed strange to us to see so many people with guns and bullets. The police in the UK were only armed with a truncheon and a whistle.

Flying has never bothered me, apart from my first flight in a plane no bigger than a mini bus. However Rie prefers not to fly and so we agreed to enjoy the open roads of Europe, this experience is so different to the congested car parks that pass for motorways in the UK.

I am a European. I love Europe and I love it that we, in the UK, are a part of Europe. I don’t think that it is perfect or idealistic. I see it as a work in progress, a progression that I want us to be a part of. I believe in human beings working and living together. In people sharing and caring. I believe in getting rid of borders and countries, of eliminating different currencies. I believe in an equality where we are all one, where there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Where we, the human race, are all one. I say this over and over, but it is so simple, we can solve all the worlds problems in a instant, right now…

…if we all look after each other we will all be alright.

I was shocked and deeply upset by the decision of fifty percent of my fellow Brits to leave Europe. I was not shocked but upset by the underhanded lying propaganda that was employed by the Brexiteers to scare the silent majority into leaving Europe.

On a daily basis there is report after report on the damage that leaving the EU will do to Britain financial, industrially, socially, artistically, scientifically, educationally, and so on. I see us like Lemmings wandering towards the end of the cliff, walking blindly into disaster. The saddest thing of all is that it is not the people who are making these decisions that will have to pay the price, it is our children and our grandchildren.

Yesterday it was reported on the news that the EU has suggested that once we leave they will no longer recognise our driving licences. Effectively we will no longer be able to drive in Europe. That might mean that this, 2018, is the last year that we will be able to drive to Italy.

It is not too late
It is a year before the madness begins and the split happens. There is time to reverse it. If enough people, those of the nearly 50% who voted to remain, and all those that voted to leave who have now seen the error of the decision, now come together we could reverse this process.

Another referendum
If we voted again do you think that the decision would be the same?

Watching the amount of European nurses and other medical professionals leaving the NHS and the lack of European nurses medical professional being prepared to come to the NHS it is easy to see our reliance on our fellow Europeans, just as they rely on us. We have had the pleasure of our fellow Europeans working in our farms, in our hospitality industry, the health care sector and many more industries. We also contribute to the European community in many different ways. Many of us chose to live in Europe.

We need Europe and Europe needs us.

A second referendum would be triggered by enough people writing to their MPs demanding one.

Take care, be happy and enjoy Europe while we are still a part of it and hopefully we will always be a part of it.

Sean x