To make a “good Brexit” or a “bad Brexit” that is the question. A clean, conscious uncoupling of Britain from the EU, or a messy, complicated divorce? Of course, it all comes down to how the question is “framed”, and we are into a serious “framing” game at the moment — with politicians vying to situate the arguments surrounding Europe to suit their own needs.
The referendum itself was a colossal framing game. Framing ideas normalises them. It was the framing of Europe as a “shall we?” or “shan’t we?” question that made it acceptable that the UK might leave Europe in the first place. Unfortunately, for the “brexiteer”, Europe is not a “question”, Europe is a big fat fact. Europe has been part of British life since long before we joined the European Community in 1973. Think of the two World Wars and one begins to understand why the EU exits in the first place. It would be fear mongering to say that World War III beckons if the UK leaves, but nevertheless — and it’s important to note — there will be European elections held in many EU countries in 2019.
Recently, I ran into the photographer and Turner Prize winner Wolfgang Tillmans. He told me that he is now focused on these upcoming elections because he fears far right nationalist parties across Europe will see the 2019 elections as their “once in a generation” moment to contest, and then rip apart, the EU. Already, Eurosceptic parties have considerable power in Italy and Germany. Next year, the far right will be thinking ‘”one more push”. So expect to see a new wave of Wolfgang Tillmans’ posters in museums across Europe. His 2016 referendum posters were certainly a useful (if ultimately unsuccessful) rallying point for pro-EU artists. In the UK, it is a mistake that a broader sense of EU politics has not been not more widely propagated. If we had politicians who had presented Europe to us as the “greatest experiment in peacemaking ever attempted”, rather than a set of trade treaties, perhaps UK citizens would have understood that to be in the EU is to hold our small, fractious and fragile part of the world community together, and ultimately, to help prevent war.
As an artist, I am upset that politicians have not spoken out for the generations of European artists and their families who have either moved to or grown-up in Britain. We don’t hear in the media the voice of the European worker — be they artist, builder, NHS worker or teacher. European voices based in the UK have been left out of the debate. Why? Because many don’t have a vote, and thus don’t have any say in their fate. I have a UK passport and I would like to keep the part of my nationality that allows me rights and responsibilities across Europe, from the UK to Italy, from Poland to Portugal.
My rights are being destroyed in the Brexit deal, and I AM SHOUTING ABOUT IT! I want to hear from the Europeans who made friendly Britain their home. We don’t hear from people who moved here because, as a close Italian artist friend told me, they are scared to proclaim their rights. My Italian friend told me that his Italian partner had left him because she saw absolutely no future in staying in the UK. She decided to move to Berlin. That’s the kind of Brexit break-up no one is talking about — personal lives of good people are being ruined. My friend clings onto the idea of making London his home, but feels a move back to Italy is on the cards. His life is one that has been thwarted by Brexit. I asked if I could reveal his name in this article, but he said, “No!” Why not? Because life for European workers depends upon good relationships and putting up with jokes about Polish builders and Spanish baristas. In the Brexit debate, we have not considered the lives that will be most affected.
There will be a second referendum because the Brexit deal will satisfy no one. Politicians charged with making the Brexit deal will never please even those who voted to leave because a clean break will cripple the economy and create a Brexit bureaucracy at every border. The EU itself is preoccupied with maintaining its own integrity because Europeans recognise that a European break-up would be catastrophic and that people like me don’t want to leave because I feel to be truly British is to be a European citizen.
Calls for the second referendum are not undemocratic but on the contrary are extremely sensible. Brexit is a big mess and it needs clearing up. When you clear things up you put them in the bin.