Voting for Brexit is a return to the xenophobia that tore Europe apart in the 1930s and brought Hitler to power

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) It looks like Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party have won this election in the UK with a majority of about 50 seats. People voted en masse for xenophobia, fear and strident nationalism

(2) One key feature of this election was industrial blue collar workers across northern England voting for both the Conservative and the Brexit parties despite the fact that neither party shares any of their values

(3) In somewhere like Workington for instance, the constituency voted for a Conservative MP in a seat which had been Labour since 1918. This is a steel town of industrial workers who the Conservatives have always had disdain for. The Tories have never had any regard for industrial towns but alas, the people still voted for them

(4) There is no evidence to show that people are voting for Boris Johnson or his party’s policies. Most of the Labour seats going Tory are in constituencies where people voted to leave the European Union (EU)

(5) It is also important to note that if the Labour Party picked up all the Brexit vote in the northeast and Midlands it would have fought off the Tory surge. People appear to be saying we will vote Tory because we hate Europeans irrespective of the impact it will have on their lives

(6) Why for instance would the people of Sunderland vote for the Tory Party? This is a constituency that is home to a Nissan plant which faces closure when Britain leaves the EU with the loss of thousands of jobs

(7) Many Brits naively think that leaving the EU and adopting a rightwing nationalist isolationist economic and foreign policy will better their lives. We saw that in Germany in 1931 when the people voted en mass for Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party

(8) Insecure working people think that expelling EU nationals will increase their gross domestic product (GDP), create jobs, attract investors and lead to economic growth. It is kind of like a drowning man holding on to a crocodile thinking it represents redemption

(9) Knowing Boris Johnson, he will ride roughshod over any sensitive issues. He will happily ram through No Deal Brexit irrespective of how many job loses it will lead to, he will ignore the calls for a new referendum in Scotland and adopt a Trump-like foreign policy

(10) Human beings can sometimes be easily stampeded into looking for short term and populist fixes. There is no way anyone can make Brexit out to be a good thing. Xenophobia, strident nationalism and isolationism never leads to anything good over the long run. I just hope Nigeria never toes this path of self-destruction that Britain has decided to embark upon