Yesterday was Brexit Day, but it’s not yet clear what it’ll mean for us.
We have another year of negotiations ahead – on trade, on land management, on environmental and working standards, on security, education, data handling…
We won’t be crashing out without a deal at this point, which is good news.
But it’s vital to stay connected to what’s happening – apologies to those tired of hearing about Brexit in the news! – and staying connected is the main way to ensure we eventually get what we want.
The reason many people voted for Brexit was because they wanted more of a say in how our country’s being run. They were promised democracy, and certainly we all deserve to decide how we’d like to be treated, and express what our lives should look like.
The only way to make Brexit work for everyone is to gather together, and decide on these matters together. We need citizens’ assemblies, and votes on what we’d like to have happen.
We need community groups to campaign to protect our NHS, our green spaces, our wildlife. We need to invest responsibly in our transport links and infrastructure.
We need politicians who will listen to us – not choose for us, or simply promote business over human welfare.
Brexit was publicised as an opportunity to start again with a blank slate, and we can fight for fairness, for decent working conditions, for effective use of legislation and human rights. We must stay engaged in doing this, even if we’re already a bit worn out from all these sweeping changes.
It’s sad that we’re leaving the friends we’ve made across the EU, which was designed primarily as a peace project, that would help neighbouring countries grow past the crises of the 20th century. We must hold peace, respect and kindness at the heart of all we do going ahead – because that is the only way humanity can truly flourish.