Britain has not become racist overnight

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Social media was awash this weekend with angry brexiters ranting away after our new PM confirmed that we would not be getting a points based immigration system for EU nationals.

Nigel Farage now says he might make a come back as that is what people thought they were voting for

Wherever nationalism subsides, leftist poster children then make racist comments. For instance, British Muslims against British Jews.

It's considered edgy and hip, when conspicuous gays and drug abusers praise social utilitarianism. For instance, white supremists saying something is dank and based (drug slang), using gangster rap and pop music as a platform. Milo likes blacks (explicitly) but not women. Hindu "conservatives" in a Christian culture.

Black Trump supporters, advocating Blue Lives Matter, because you are never allowed to disagree with anything they say, on account of their minority status.

Racism made a resurgance, from what was once a protected class, never to be named in the light of day, much less criticized.

How can I possibly say no?

There is no way any country on the face of the planet has done as many horrible things as the british in the last 500 years. Most of it was a complete act of supremacy.

It's true that Britain - or to be more specific, England - hasn't become racist overnight. For hundreds of years there has been a virulent current of racism, xenophobia and self-satisfied nationalism that runs just below the surface of English society, and which periodically shows its ugly face, as the recent vote to leave the EU amply demonstrates. It was present in the apparatus and attitudes of the British Empire (run predominantly by the English), in Oswald Moseley's Blackshirt movement, and also in the skinheads and the English football supporters who adorn themselves with George crosses and brawl drunkenly in the streets of foreign countries. More insidiously, it exists in the smug attitudes of the English bourgeoisie who are ignorant of other cultures, believe that England (not Britain) won World War II singlehandedly (in their eyes the USA and the Soviet Union played no part) and insist on shouting at the locals in English when they travel abroad because they don't speak any foreign languages.

Fortunately the majority of English people don't behave like this, but there is undoubtedly a significant and vociferous minority - many of them public figures - who do. At the 2015 election, 3.9 million people voted for UKIP, whose agenda is unashamedly racist. Many others, particularly Conservative supporters, tacitly agree with them. It is this minority who feel empowered by the Brexit vote to vent their spleen on anyone who seems in some way foreign or simply 'Other'. And, apart from a few isolated incidents, the violence and hatred shown towards foreigners since 23 June has been in England, not elsewhere in the UK.

But seen more broadly, nationalist racism is in the ascendant in much of the western world. Golden Dawn in Greece, Jobbik in Hungary, the Front National in France, Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, the FPÖ in Austria are all ultra-right-wing parties of a kind not seen in Europe since the 1930s, while in America there is Trump.

So the threat is very real.

One concern that seems to be on the minds of many remain and leave voters is what happens to the small minority that thought the vote was for something that it wasn't and therefore no matter what happens in the negotiations they don't get what they thought they were getting.

It has been shown since the vote that there was certainly a small number of people that thought the whole vote was about X, when it was in fact about the variables of Y, so no matter where they get with Y it will never be X. People were shows in the days after the vote to be protesting, holding up banners telling foreigners to 'go home' etc. These people will be very angry when they don't get what they thought they were in line to get. things will get very ugly.

To extend that out, what happens if we end up joining something like the EEA? We will have left the EU so will have done what was voted for, but will still have free movement of people, payments into the EU and living under EU law? There will again be a minority who get very angry about that feeling that this is not what they voted for, when it fact they voted for no specific policies at all and the EEA was always touted as being the most likely situation we end up in. There would be carnage on the streets from the angry brexiters.

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You sum up the situation extremely well. This is a real danger. During the referendum campaign, both the Remain and the Leave sides were guilty of exaggerating the likely consequences, and in some cases telling outright lies. This was particularly true of the Leave side, who pandered to the sort of visceral racism I mentioned in my earlier post. At no point did they offer a clear vision of what the process of leaving the EU would entail, nor anything approaching a detailed plan of how it would be negotiated and what the UK's eventual position would be outside the EU. This has been proved by the fact that the Brexiters in government clearly have no idea of how to approach what is a gargantuan task. That's why Theresa May is taking charge of negotiations - Fox, Davies and Johnson are clueless, and are regarded with deep suspicion by the very EU officials who they have to now deal with.

So you're right: there are a lot of people in England particularly who thought the UK would simply leave the EU outright on 24 June, and that anyone who wasn't a British (or in their opinion 'English') citizen would be promptly deported. UKIP, Gove and Johnson led them to believe that this is what would happen if they voted to leave. But as you say, it's quite likely - and economically logical - that we will negotiate something similar to EEA membership, at which point Farage will put on his union jack shoes and start whipping up more hatred.

Among all the shouting, one vital fact has been forgotten. While the vote was clear, it was also very close to being 50-50. 48% of the electorate, notably young people whose future is at stake as well as 62% in Scotland, voted to remain, and the wishes of that 48% must be reflected in what the government now negotiates, because it concerns the future of everyone in the UK. This would have also been true if the vote had gone the other way, in which case the Leave camp would now be demanding to be heard.

So as you say, I can see things getting ugly. There's a nasty atmosphere pretty much everywhere you go.

Mass immigration isn’t forced; immigrants come of their own free will. It’s the other way round: if they are to stay out, they have to be forced to.

What have immigrants got to do with it? Mass immigration has been forced on us by corrupt politicians, their friends and rulers.

What have immigrants got to do with it? Mass immigration has been forced on us by corrupt politicians, their friends and rulers.

The bulk of Indian and Pakistani immigrants into Britain are the result of poor colonial administration back in the days of the Indian raj. Firstly in 1947 Britain mishandled the partition of India and Pakistan resulting in millions of refugees. Following this there have been plenty of examples where Indians bought in as slave labour in East Africa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Fiji, Caribbean, Mauritius have been left vulnerable to the locals after their British masters fled. Most have been unable to return to India and so the British politicians have had no choice but to accept them. Nothing to do with corruption, more likely it was the right thing to do. Currently there are hundreds of thousands of Tamils in India and Rohingya in Burma who are declared stateless by the Indians and Burmese due to artificial lines/boundaries drawn up by starch shirted Brits in red coats and fake wigs back in the 1800s.

I realise it's much easier to vilify these people for wanting a better life in the UK but it's karma in action (cause and effect). The reasons modern day Brits have a such a cushy life is the wealth created by the "multicultural" British empire which enslaved millions of these people's ancestors. When it came to slavery the Brits, Americans and Australians had no problems destroying these people's culture and dragging them across the ocean. Now when they want a safe haven the destruction of British culture is invoked. How ironic.

migrating has gone on ever since humans first evolved, it's part of being human.

The bulk of Indian and Pakistani immigrants into Britain are the result of poor colonial administration back in the days of the Indian raj. Firstly in 1947 Britain mishandled the partition of India and Pakistan resulting in millions of refugees. Following this there have been plenty of examples where Indians bought in as slave labour in East Africa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Fiji, Caribbean, Mauritius have been left vulnerable to the locals after their British masters fled. Most have been unable to return to India and so the British politicians have had no choice but to accept them. Nothing to do with corruption, more likely it was the right thing to do. Currently there are hundreds of thousands of Tamils in India and Rohingya in Burma who are declared stateless by the Indians and Burmese due to artificial lines/boundaries drawn up by starch shirted Brits in red coats and fake wigs back in the 1800s.

I realise it's much easier to vilify these people for wanting a better life in the UK but it's karma in action (cause and effect). The reasons modern day Brits have a such a cushy life is the wealth created by the "multicultural" British empire which enslaved millions of these people's ancestors. When it came to slavery the Brits, Americans and Australians had no problems destroying these people's culture and dragging them across the ocean. Now when they want a safe haven the destruction of British culture is invoked. How ironic.

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Eloquently put. It chimes with my previous posts on this thread. If hypocrisy could be bottled and sold, Britain would be the wealthiest nation on the planet.