On the morning of the 24th June 2016 I was not alone in feeling immensely proud to be British and of my fellow countrymen and women who voted to leave the European Union. To understand this pride and the after shock heard around the world we must go right back to January of this year, three months before the official campaign started David Cameron had already agreed the tone of the governments campaign which would be swiftly labelled "project fear". The very moment Cameron decided to concentrate on the economic factor to win over the population he was on a loser because the economy was far from the minds of the great British public. Immigration became the main concern as since 2004 the free movement directive has seen the UK population rise considerably from central and eastern European countries, in just 12 years Polish had become the second spoken language in the UK. In 2007 this was extended to Romania and Bulgaria and studies showed that many working class people had concerns over public services, housing and the living wage. In 2015 the UK had a general election and during the lead up to the vote every political party was talking about immigration, this topic became the mainstay of every episode of BBC's Question Time so it should not have been any surprise that the referendum would follow a similar vain as immigration had not been controlled as promised. A yougov poll shows that lower paid working class British people were more likely to vote to leave than the higher earners and the reason for this is clear, working class people could not see the benefits from staying in the EU indeed they were experiencing precisely the opposite. David Cameron's "project fear" was relentless and unforgiving, it began back in January with a warning that the UK could "disintegrate" if it left the EU and continued in that vain. We were warned that households would be thousands of pounds poorer, that Putin would bomb us, that terrorists could bomb us, house prices would plummet, holidays would be more expensive, thousands of jobs would be lost, the elderly would lose their pensions, a third world war would happen, we would have a recession, an emergency budget and worse still Milky way Stars wouldn't be sold in Britain. The usual suspects were rolled out in succession to offer the same scary warnings, President Obama, the IMF, the bank of England, the big corporations, Tony Blair, Bob geldof and even David Beckham warned the UK of economic disaster from one of their many mansions. As if project fear couldn't stoop any lower, the tragic but well timed death of Jo Cox gave the remain campaign an added boost as they steered the campaign to a "it's what Jo would have wanted" tone and some pro-EU newspapers were even calling the murder a "brexit" killing. The timely death of Jo Cox was used by remain campaigners right up to the vote day and leave supporters were blasted for the tone of some of their campaigns when in reality the remain camps were the most negative in nature, since the result of the referendum Jo Cox has vanished from the media limelight. One cannot talk about the referendum without mentioning Nigel Farage, because but for UKIP and Farage there wouldn't have been a referendum in the first place, a fact that few are prepared to admit. One politician who did admit this was George Galloway who despises UKIP as a party but happily shared a platform with Nigel to ensure the UK left the EU. Although Nigel Farage was the driving force behind this referendum the official leave campaign was awarded to the conservative led 'vote leave' group and although not part of that campaign Farage is taking the blame for some of their statements. David Cameron has shown his cowardliness in refusing to debate head-to-head with Nigel farage on many occasions. There is no doubt that project fear was successful, it was a devastating attack and it made a huge impact in the final results of the referendum. This fact is perhaps why I feel so proud of my fellow countrymen and women who voted to leave, because without project fear the majority of leavers would have been much bigger ...but we still won the referendum. The working class voted as one against the establishment, against the big banks, against our own government, against our own opposition party, against the celebrities, against the corperations and against the so-called experts. The real back bone of this country didn't need to be told facts and figures because they could SEE and FEEL what was really going on in the country, they were LIVING it. The real working class don't have mansions with Romanian maids, Polish gardeners or nannies from the Czech republic. the real people of this country can't use private hospitals and private schools, we can't buy luxury pads in chelsea or fly to Italy three times a week, we can see our wages come to a stand still, we can hear the language being spoken in our own country that we can't understand, we sweated as we waited to see if our daughter got her school place, we waited for two weeks to see our doctor, for us the country is changing and not for our benefit. As the final results came through and it was clear that the UK had voted to leave the EU the BBC in particular started the media tone that would continue for the next week, doom and gloom. The BBC were quick to drag on as many pro-EU talking heads as they could muster telling us how silly the country had been and how it was a devastating result for Britain. David Dimbleby could barely hide his anger at the result taking a nasty swipe at Nigel Farage for his repeated interviews even though the media had chosen to conduct them, after all it was Farage's battle and the media would naturally want to hear him. Talk of a 2nd referendum quickly began on social media including an on-line petition and many politicians were swift to capitalise on the media swing by also supporting a 2nd referendum while others were asking the government to simply ignore the result completely. A week after the vote and the political landscape has changed beyond recognition, Cameron resigns, Corbyn is facing a coup, Johnson has apparently shown he had no intention of wanting out of the EU in the first place, the Scottish toad stall Sturgeon is using the vote to further the SNPs cause for an independent Scotland and even the Mayor of London has suggested London should remain part of the EU, it is an utter disaster for democracy. Before the vote took place many people were suggesting that even if the country voted to leave the EU it would never actually happen, far too many forces are working against the working class and David Camerons resignation is likely part of the bigger plan to remain in the EU. Cameron's replacement will undoubtedly be a remain campaigner like Theresa May who will delay triggering article 50 as long as she can. Project fear never ended and it will continue until these forces change public opinion and force the UK back into the EU. What began as a fantastic day for Britain and democratic people power is beginning to seem like it was just a dream
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