We finally have our deal. We’re not crashing out after all but we are leaving nonetheless. In the middle of a pandemic as two new strains of COVID-19 circulate through the UK, hospitals are filling up and lockdowns looming, we are severing ties with our closest trading partners and long time allies.
How did we get here? Was it populism? Globalism? Anti globalism? Misinformation? Nostalgia? Fear? Hope? Sovereignty? Studies suggest immigration fears, or the desire to control migration, was the main concern of leave voters (see footnotes for sources).
I’m a European. One of my earliest memories is of joining the EU back in 1973. Tangible benefits to me have been freedom of movement and open borders and I still can’t believe we’re leaving. Small annoyances stack up slowly: the reimposition of roaming charges, not being able to use the EU citizen passport lane, the shame of being associated with xenophobia. Large annoyances are having an effect on my business: the mountain of red tape and tax registrations that will be needed to sell my books into Europe is the most immediate.
What does this have to do with photography?
It has been suggested (see footnotes) that left-wing/liberal/leave voters are more likely to block or “unfriend” their ideological counterparts than the other way around. Leavers are more likely to stay exposed to arguments from the other side: Remainers apparently prefer to stay in a Remain bubble.
I am a left of centre Remainer. I confess to blocking Leavers online. I admit it’s easier for me to assume they are all xenophobic, selfish, small-minded Little Englanders than to do the work and understand their point of view. I’m guilty of making lazy assumptions and that needs to change.
My goal in 2021 is to do the work. We are leaving. I can’t stop it. I can either live in a state of permanent resentment or try to find a way forward that is compatible with my left of centre Remain ideology. We think we’re special (doesn’t everyone?): how much of that is tied to our island status? This turning point for our nation has provoked a curiosity about our borders that I need to explore.
Pandemic permitting I will be tracing the borders of Little England with my camera. East Coast, South Coast, North West Coast and two internal borders: one with Wales and one with Scotland. I know it is something of a privilege to vote Remain from an economically comfortable position. What don’t I know?
Little England?
The project has a question mark because I don’t know yet. Are we an inward- and backward-looking island about to find out that we just don’t matter any more or is this the dawn of a new golden age – the sunlit uplands, if you will, that we were promised? Or will not much change?
Sources