Brexit: not my vote

The referendum result for Brexit may have taken place over a year and a half ago, but remainers still feel the bitter pang of rejection as if it were yesterday. This is true for students in particular where the remain-to-leave ratio was found to be six-to-one.

Leaving the EU will massively affect educational institutions, which fear they will lose the 15 per cent of the funding they receive from the EU as well as academics being less inclined to come to the UK due to visa issues.

These consequences were felt closer to home when the University of Manchester announced in 2017 that it would be making 171 members of staff redundant across all disciplines.

Yet it was the School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures (SALC) that was being hit the hardest — this was definitely the impression I got when speaking to both my French and English lecturers.

The anger with this decision prompted a strike on the 23rd and 24th of October. Staff dissatisfaction was only intensified by the financial stability and prosperity of the University at the time.

Consequently, management seemed to be using Brexit as an excuse to make cuts that would inevitably cause long-term damage to many departments.

SALC needs protection from the Brexit storm and the only umbrella that can protect it — the University — is refusing to open itself to them.

Speaking to a Manchester University Business Management student from France regarding her Brexit concerns, she explained that “prices and the employment sector will suffer as a result of a growing number of international companies leaving the UK due to new employment regulations.

“They fear these new Brexit-friendly rules will damage their business and their image.”

This will leave many Brits without jobs.  Such unemployment will be particularly damaging when coupled with prices of imported goods rising due to Brexit.

The effects of this surge in prices will be felt the most by low-income households and those who consider themselves working class of which 70 per cent of the former and 59 per cent of the latter voted leave according to a NatCen social research paper.

Brexit seems all the more astonishing when taking a look back at what a lack of European unity resulted in the twentieth century.

Two world wars, millions of people killed, and years of economic and infrastructural damage are within the memory of our grandparents.  Yet 64 per cent of over-65s voted leave even though they will not live to see the consequences of their vote.

Pro-EU students and young people are left with years of instability lying ahead of them and will suffer the consequences educationally and financially as they seek jobs after graduation.

Our best hope is to put pressure on the government — to the best of our ability — to implement post-EU legislations that will benefit future generations and not merely their own political agenda.