The EU referendum: a social catalyst

The fact that we have left the EU is no surprise. Nor is David Cameron’s resignation. Brexit is the price that we pay for nurturing a political class who care more about their individual careers than the people they have been elected to represent. The referendum was thus not a division between the young and the old, nor the right and the left- rather, Brexit has unearthed the gulf between the general public and Westminster’s untouchable elite. From the onset, I have always maintained that Brexit was a strong possibility. Unlike many of my peers who are fortunate enough to live in a vibrant city such as London, I have seen the division between the British people first hand. To some LSE undergraduates, Brexit was a harmless impossibility; one of my friends even claimed that if she were to vote, she would vote “out for a laugh” because everyone she knew was voting in. And she can’t be blamed for thinking like this; everybody knew that London would come through in favour of Remain, and deep down I knew that despite the campaign’s best efforts, the majority of constituencies would vote Leave. The uncertainty that we now face was beyond my prior comprehension. In my opinion, things can only get worse; as a nation, we are now more divided than ever before.