Image Courtesy of CBS News
Disclaimer// In this article I will be discussing how my family will be affected as a result of the EU referendum. As I state in the article although my family is not inherently financially struggling, we are however entirely dependent on an industry that will be struck hard by the result. I know others will suffer from this referendum result more than myself and my family, I am merely using my family as something I know as a model to, hopefully, convey the wider effects.
It has been a long few weeks for many of us here in the UK, but I can now gladly state that the political fallout that ensued after the dreaded EU Referendum has somewhat died down. The referendum result sparked more controversy than the campaign leading up to it: the UK deciding to leave the EU by little over 1 million votes (approximately 3% of a margin between stay and leave), a petition to hold a second referendum with over 4 million signatures, the resignation of the PM, David Cameron, and finally the revelation that the Leave campaign was based on statistical fallacies, lies. It is easy however to get tied up in statistics, tied up in the truths and lies. It is easy to take in the sudden drop in the value of the Great British Pound which now looks more like the Alright British Pound after it fell to its lowest in over 30 years. What is not easy, however, is seeing how it will affect the individuals, the families reliant on the results of this referendum, the families reliant on us staying and the industries us leaving have, without a doubt, affected.
My family is one such family to a degree; I will admit that we will not be affected as negatively by this result as many others will be but can be used to convey the principle. Let me start by saying that my family is not in the lower income bracket. My family lives in rural Oxfordshire, approximately 20 minutes away from the City of Oxford, my mother is a teaching assistant, my father is an architect. We do not have to struggle for the money to pay the bills or pay the mortgage. We do not, however, like many of those that will be affected by this referendum result, have money that creates money. By this I mean we do not own a business, we do not make a profit; if we need to buy something, that money has to be worked for, we do not have money that can be thrown about like some. Now, how will this referendum result affect us, you ask? Simple, as I said, my father is an architect, a line of work reliant on our building industry; an industry that will have received a sizable smack in the face as a result of this referendum.
My father works for himself. This means that if he needs the money he needs projects to work on, projects that will become increasingly difficult to find after the results of this referendum due to the increased likelihood of the recession that shall most likely follow suit. This is particularly worrying to many working in the industry as, during a recession, those with wealth are hesitant to spend it on building things such as extensions or loft conversions, preferring to withhold their money, to stash it away in a savings account, finding any possible excuse to not dip in, meaning that for families like my own, there are, in effect, fewer jobs. It doesn’t take enormous amounts of common sense to comprehend what this means. It means that families dependent on the construction sector, a sector that traditionally offers a lower income bracket, will only suffer.
To conclude, I have seen many people stating that they voted to leave for their “Leftist Ideology” which is completely fine, if you believe that voting leave tailors to your own interests I will not berate you. That was your decision to make. However, it cannot be denied that, as a result of this, many of the lower income families will suffer and for what? For false figures and lies.
