I’m now in a country where the trains run on time, are comfortable and, unlike in the UK, affordable. There is free Wi fi everywhere and, again unlike in the UK, everyone speaks perfect English. Even with the plunging exchange rate, it’s not over-expensive although when it plunges some more it soon will be. Welcome to the Netherlands.
I’ve only been here a day and the difference between the country of my birth and the country of my mother’s birth is palpable. I know I am only getting a sense of the differences but I am at an advantage because I know the Netherlands well.
Even before Britain’s EU exit, we were a tortured country, consumed with cynicism, many of us in the Daily Mail view of Britain where everything is broken and nothing works. Brexit, at a stroke, has made things so much worse.
I now read that all the architects of our exit from the EU have decided their work is done and left it to everyone else to pick up the pieces. A chancer, Boris Johnson, and a racist, Nigel Farage, whose dream this was, have left the stage just as it set fire. You, they say, put out the flames.
Contrary to speculation, I am not leaving the country on anything but a temporary basis, but if I was starting out in life I might not feel the same. This wonderful country, the Netherlands, an incredible blend of history and state of the art technology is what we could have become.
The next generation has already seen what’s coming, with diminishing opportunities as investment start to diminish.
If you are thinking of living or working abroad, you may soon need to think again if abroad means Europe. The next prime minister, even it is Theresa May, will start from a position where everything is up for grabs. Do not take it for granted that if you live abroad now that you will be able to do so by 2019.
David Cameron’s Project Fear campaign didn’t work but Project Hate did and now it turns out that the leaders of Project Hate, who would almost certainly form the post referendum government, either had no idea what to do if we voted to leave the EU or, worse still, didn’t care.
It defies commonsense to suggest that the Leave campaign can be excused for having no idea what to do if we left the EU. Of course they can’t be. You don’t take reckless gambles with the lives of the people you purport to represent and just hope something turns up, do you? If you voted to leave the EU, did you really not have a clue what would happen next?
And on the back of this ugly deception, Britain stands on the inside waiting to get out, not having the first idea of what to do and where to go. For a few days, I’m on the outside looking in, still baffled at what we have thrown away and at a complete loss to understand why.
I’m going to enjoy the Netherlands and the rest of Europe whilst I still can enjoy visa free travel and before the pound achieves parity, or worse, with the Euro.
In the warm sunshine of the Netherlands, I know a cold wind is coming and I am still furious with the shysters and charlatans of the Leave campaign who allowed it to happen.
