In a recent referendum, sixty per cent of Londoners voted for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. The majority of the U.K. however, voted the other way. This has caused much handwringing amongst commentators who profess to be shocked and/or disappointed with the British electorate. ‘Remain’ voters have organised marches against the result; some want the government to disregard the ‘Leave’ vote, some want a rerun in the hope that the rest will get it ‘right’ next time, and many just want to protest a result they find incomprehensible.
But is it really incomprehensible? After ten days of reflection and with nearly but not quite 20-20 hindsight, some are beginning to realise that the signs were there all along, beneath the babble of a fear-led anxiety-fed referendum campaign, in the minds of what now turns out to be the silent majority.
For example, the people in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham who returned a 62.4 per cent vote to leave the European Union. A few pre-election visits to this borough or others like it, coupled with some genuine listening, could have given our commentators and politicians hefty clues about the national mood.
Exiting from the tube station in Dagenham, it takes a mere moment to see that this place is a million miles from much of London. A few multi-coloured faux-modern balconies of early gentrification are sprouting on the crowded high street, but most buildings and homes are neither shiny nor new. The cars too are worn. Barring the rare large 4x4 drives conspicuously along Dagenham’s main shopping street, it’s full of numerous pawn brokers, betting agents, and cash generator shops turning a profit from others’ poverty. Past the frankly incredible number of mobility scooters whizzing disabled people along cycleways, it’s the faces of many Indians, Poles, Lithuanians and Nigerians one would come across.
A quick look at some statistics confirms these initial impressions. Only 49.5 per cent of the population here is white British, down from 80 per cent in 2001. Unemployment is higher than in any other London borough, and average household incomes are lower. Most 19-year-olds lack professional qualifications, a sad and almost certain predictor of poor life chances. Underage pregnancy is high, as are rates of life-limiting disability. It’s grim.
Residents are struggling to keep faith in a system that is failing them while visibly enriching a small, privileged minority elsewhere. They are frustrated that the growing and disadvantaged population in their borough is being met with reductions in basic services such as housing, education, and health. People feel let down, unheard, and disconnected from the country’s politicians and institutions. The refrain I hear in Barking and Dagenham today is that ‘something has to change.’
Franck (20) came to the U.K. from Cote d’Ivoire in 2007. He didn’t speak a word of English then, though you’d never guess it now. His father has put him through school and college and next year, he heads off to University to study computer science. He’ll take a loan to pay the fees, and he needs a job now to save money for living expenses. But jobs are pretty scarce in Barking and Dagenham he says, and competition is sky high.
Franck voted to remain in the EU. But I’d guess it was a close call, given just how well he seems to express why his white British friends voted to leave. He is a migrant, he says, and he thinks most migrants by default would have voted as he did. But infrastructure in this area is unable to cope with the increasing influx, and people are either gaining anger or losing hope. It can’t go on like this, he says. Even if they don’t always believe politicians’ promises, the referendum was a chance to tell politicians that ‘something needs to change.’
I mention recent reports suggesting that racist incidents have increased since the referendum and he sounds surprised. Since he came to the UK, he says,he has never faced racism. Not in school, not at college, and his family get on well with their white British neighbours. He sees this as a harmonious area, and I’m surprised to see that he really means it. It’s the same message from Asians, Eastern Europeans, Africans, and Turks – nobody has faced increased racism. In fact, I hear stories of some white British families who were racist but have grown to love their Polish and Nigerian neighbours in recent years. Familiarity seems to be breeding understanding, not contempt. This is not what I was expecting in a borough that elected a dozen politicians from the right-wing British National Party just a few years ago. On reflection though, it's true that I felt no hostile edge walking about Barking and Dagenham. An edge, which I often experienced first hand, as a race relations worker in Bristol in the early 2000s.
Police personnel Tom and Sarah confirm the lack of increased community tensions. On the contrary, says Tom, there is a sense of relief that now – there’s the phrase – ‘something will change.’ Sarah, ‘a local girl’ by her own description, spoke despairingly of the sharp population growth she has seen here in the past decade (set to increase by four times the national average in the next four years, by some estimates). Perversely, as the population rises, Barking and Dagenham council’s budget was effectively halved in 2015. Council leader Darren Rodwell said, “People will have to start being more responsible for their situation as they will no longer be able to come to the council and expect us to give them a solution.”
The result: job losses, insufficient school places, long waits at the doctor’s surgery, housing shortages. Many people told me that their vote to leave the EU was a protest against these harsh realities. Not against immigration, but against something one layer deeper – namely, the utterly inadequate resources to meet the growing needs of a growing community. If it had been just about immigration, then other areas touched by population influxes would have voted to leave too. But Ealing, where only 30 per cent of the population is white British, voted to remain. So did Lambeth, which is only 39 per cent white British.
The ‘Leave’ vote may have in some quarters been about isolationism, right-wing nationalism, small-mindedness and racism, as is evidenced in Eastern Europeans and Asians being told that they can pack up now and go ‘home’. But it is at our peril that we consider this to be the entire story. For Franck, Sarah and millions of others – Indian, white British, Eastern European, Turkish, African – the ‘Leave’ vote is the consequence of harsh austerity budget cuts which most severely hurt those most in need of support. It is the story of people who feel left behind and unheard, those whose concerns remain unaddressed at best, and are at worst casually flicked away as racist. It is about people who are rarely portrayed in public discourse except in two-dimensional, meaningless, often unflattering caricatures.
In this referendum, it may just be that they made their voices heard loud and clear, and they were calling for change. The establishment must listen. I think to start with, they could do a lot worse than organising a few simple, grounded, honest town hall meetings in a place like Barking and Dagenham.
*some names have been changed.
(Shobha Das has worked with several NGOs and specialises in international human rights. She lives in London.)
