The big shadow over Big Ben

On a rainy Tuesday, just days after Britain’s shock Brexit referendum result, a sea of umbrellas could be seen across Trafalgar Square as hundreds of people gathered to show their support for the country’s 43-year-long membership of the EU. Despite the inclement weather, impromptu gatherings such as this (a formal rally was called off because of safety concerns) took place across the country, as those dismayed at the result - British citizens, Europeans and British residents from across the globe - desperately sought channels to express their feelings, amid a breakdown of leadership in both major political parties following the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and the no-confidence vote in Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by his parliamentary party.

When the protests shifted to outside parliament, occupying an area normally off-limits to the public, the chants acquired a furious tone. “Liar Liar, what’s your plan?” shouted demonstrators, referring to leading figures of the Brexit camp recanting on a number of their campaign pledges just hours after the results were declared, and the absence of any concrete plan for the road ahead. Two days after the result, Boris Johnson, the former mayor who abandoned his former pro-Europe stance to become one of Brexit’s Three Musketeers (the others were Conservative Minister Michael Gove and UKIP’s Nigel Farage, who resigned earlier this week) was pictured playing cricket. As if to emphasise the parallels with Nero’s fiddling while Rome burned, the pound had dipped to a 31-year low and the FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) 250 had fallen seven per cent - and that was before the credit rating agency downgrades.

One week after the vote, the campaign posters that so recently festooned the Capital have gone and life in London seems to be returning to normal - at least on the surface. But the weight of the result hangs heavily in the air, and its implications dominate conversations in coffee shops, on trains and buses, and at school drop-offs as Londoners try to grapple with a situation few had anticipated. London was the only English region to vote decisively in favour of Remain (other such bubbles included cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Bristol) although the story was very different in Scotland (62 per cent voted for Remain) and Northern Ireland (56 per cent for Remain). Wales surprised commentators by recording 52.5 per cent for Brexit, while Britain’s second largest city, multicultural Birmingham, recorded a decidedly mixed result, with over half of its 40 voting areas opting for Leave.

Even in London, just over 40 per cent chose the Leave option; in some outer boroughs Brexiters were in the majority. Residents across the metropolis are currently struggling to understand what has happened to a city that, particularly following the 2012 Olympics, had come to be seen as the embodiment of multiculturalism, tolerance and diversity. “I was shocked, embarrassed and appalled,” says Naruca Appiah, a Romanian citizen who has lived in London for the past nine years without experiencing discrimination, contrary to the lot of Romanians in other parts of Europe. “I always found that international couples were embraced a lot more in London than anywhere else in the world.”

Like many Londoners who voted to Remain, Appiah was shocked to discover Brexit supporters among her circle of friends and, in the wake of the result, felt permitted to talk about immigration as they had never done before. “Hearing a friend whom I’d thought of as educated and open-minded talking about Brexit, quoting immigration nonsense, I was speechless,” she says. “Now people who weren’t so forward about bringing out their opinions on immigrants suddenly feel entitled to say these things.”

Miriam Thorne, a German national who has lived in Britain for the past 23 years, is concerned about the long-term implications for a country whose ingrained imperialist and racist traditions have never been fully explored. She contrasts this with the situation in Germany where, “Given our history… right from a young age you learn about what racism can lead to.”

Such concerns are warranted. The week following the referendum saw a fivefold increase in racist incidents reported across Britain. Verbal abuse, xenophobic leaflets, and physical assaults were targeted not only at Europeans but also at other minorities, in particular Muslims. In the west London borough of Hammersmith, a Polish community centre was daubed with racist graffiti; elsewhere, schoolchildren of non-white ethnicity became the object of racial taunts. In T heWashington Post Keshav Kapoor, a British freelance writer, described his experience of being verbally abused in the Capital, while a German woman who has lived in Britain for over four decades called in a London radio station to describe her shock after dog excrement was thrown at her door.

Preliminary analysis of the Brexit vote, based on the polling of 12,000-plus people who had taken part in the referendum by Lord Ashcroft Polls, provides revealing insights into Leave voters: not only their age and geographical location but also their socio-economic profile and, in particular, their ideology. On the basis of key attitude-related questions posed by the Ashcroft questionnaire, Leave voters are emerging as disproportionately opposed to multiculturalism, social liberalism, feminism, the Green movement, globalisation and immigration.

While by no means all Leave voters subscribe to such attitudes, that a significant proportion of them regard multiculturalism and immigration as ‘a force for ill’ helps contextualise the spate of racist attacks and the ugly upsurge of incivility that have disfigured Britain since the Brexit victory.

The increasingly hostile environment has left some London residents questioning their future in Britain. “I feel great sadness that a country that welcomed me 20 years ago has now turned its back on me,” says Chiara, an Italian who regularly visited the city before she made it her home six years ago, and who, concerned about the turn of events, was keen just to use her first name. “We may very well be granted leave to stay but we may decide to leave anyway, with the increase in racism, and unstable situation.”

At the same time, there have been huge outpourings of support for those bearing the brunt of xenophobic and racist hostility. The west London Polish community centre has been inundated with messages of support, along with flowers and cards, and members of the public have gathered outside in solidarity. A number of public initiatives have been launched, too: for example, one calling on people to wear a plain safety pin to show their opposition to racism.

Such initiatives are helping some Europeans question whether they really need - or want - to leave. Vanessa Babani Matsuoka, a Spaniard of Indian origin who has lived in London for the past 12 years, says that she’s gradually overcoming her first instinct to put the city behind her. “People have been making such an effort to make me feel at home. Will I stay? I don’t know yet whether things will change so much to make me want to leave - the level of hatred can change. I do know that I am a European and am proud of being one.”

Last Saturday thousands marched through London to Parliament in another demonstration that brought together people -  students, senior citizens, and families with small children - from across the country. The atmosphere was both celebratory - of what people felt the EU stood for - and fraught with anger. As the demonstrators passed Downing Street there were cries of “Shame on You” while posters excoriated the Brexit leadership and the pledges they had gone back on.

Tash, a southeast Londoner, said she was there to protest the vote results as well as the increasing racism. “There are so many people who make up London and the UK, and we should be united together.” She, like many at the demonstration, is hopeful that the referendum does not spell the end of Britain’s European membership, given the intense public pressure. “If we don’t have hope, what can we do?” she says.

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