‘We don’t exist for them, do we?’: why people that are working-class for Brexit

Estimated reading time: ten minutes

Lisa Mckenzie

Estimated reading time: ten minutes

Working-class individuals were more prone to vote for Brexit. Lisa Mckenzie (Middlesex University) takes problem because of the idea why these social individuals were ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’. They saw Brexit, with the uncertainties it might bring, as an option to the status quo. De-industrialisation and austerity has had a heavy toll on working-class communities – one which the middle-class usually fails to grasp.

It’s 22 2016 june. I’m sat in a cafГ© into the East End of London with two regional ladies, ‘Sally’ – that is 23, has two young children, and contains been from the council household waiting list for four years, along side over 19,000 other individuals – and Anne, that is in her own sixties and calls herself a ‘proper Eastender’. Her kiddies and grandchildren had recently relocated from the area and into Essex due to the not enough a home that is affordable. It’s your day ahead of the EU referendum, and we also are speaking about most of the politics associated with time, including footballer David Beckham’s current intervention when you look at the debate: he’s got recently announced their support when it comes to campaign that is remain. The ladies aren’t delighted. The discussion goes:

‘What has that **** Beckham got to state about that?’

‘He hasn’t ever surely got to worry about where he could be planning to live, unless it’s which house.’

‘Well him and Posh can get and live where they want if they want, it is not similar for all of us, I’ve been homeless now for 2 years.’

‘We don’t exist for them, do we?’

‘Well many of us ******* who don’t occur are voting out tomorrow’.

Prior to the referendum, I’d been using the services of band of neighborhood working-class both women and men in London’s East End included in ‘The Great British Class Survey’ during the LSE. I’ve gathered a huge selection of stories about working-class life within the last few four years into the East End, and thousands throughout the last 12 years. These little tales can usually appear unrelated to your big governmental debates of this time, in the event that you don’t realize the context in their mind. Being a working-class woman, we appreciate the skill of storytelling: i understand that an account is not simply an account. Its utilized by working-class visitors to explain who they really are, where they come from, and where they belong. These tiny tales are way too frequently missed in wider governmental analysis in favor of macro styles, that has usually meant that the poorest individuals in the united kingdom payday loans NM get unrepresented.

Waxwork David and Victoria Beckham at Madame Tussauds. Picture: Cesar Pics via a CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence

Fortunately – as an ethnographer, a working-class scholastic, the child of a Nottinghamshire striking miner, and hosiery factory worker (and I also have actually resided in council housing for many of my entire life) – we rarely concentrate on the macro. My entire life and might work is rooted within working-class communities; my focus and my politics are about exposing those inequalities which are hidden to numerous, but stay in ordinary sight.

Having gathered these narratives since 2005, we knew different things ended up being taking place across the referendum. The debates in bars, cafes, nail pubs, together with hairdressers in working-class communities seemed infectious. People were interested, and argued in regards to the finer points regarding the EU, but in addition made wider points about where power rested in the UK, links that are making the 2. But, for many working course people like ‘Sally’ in addition to other ladies, the debates had been centred upon the constant fight of one’s own everyday lives, in addition they connected those battles for their moms’ and grandmothers’ hardships, but additionally with their children’s future. They saw small hope that life would be fairer for them. The referendum had been a switching point for the women in eastern London. That they had perhaps maybe not voted into the 2015 General Election: that they had small interest or faith in a governmental system seated just three kilometers away when their daily and instant situation needed constant attention. When ‘Sally’ told me she would definitely utilize her vote when it comes to very first time to leave, I inquired her if she thought things would alter for the greater whenever we had been to Brexit. She stated she didn’t understand, and didn’t care. She simply couldn’t stay things being the exact same.