The EU referendum – a personal view

The referendum is over, the votes have been counted and the decision is for the UK to leave the European Union after more than 40 years. 72% of the population voted and the result was clear – 52% for leave, 48% for Remain. You can’t argue with that. Our Prime Minister has taken the honourable decision to resign and a new leader will be in place, for the Conservative Party and the country, by October 2016.

Naturally I am disappointed and not only because my company, Anglia Translations, makes its living by promoting trade and cultural exchanges with our European friends and countries around the globe. Those of us who voted remain hoped that the European club could then be reformed from the inside. Now the UK will have no influence in what goes on in our biggest export market.

How the referendum result will affect our, and everybody else’s, business remains to be seen. Businesses usually take a pragmatic approach to any change in circumstances. Like the political and financial establishment, they seek stability and security.

It looks like there will be an extended period of “wait and see”, not only here in the UK but in Europe as well, as the consequences of this momentous vote filter down into the everyday lives of people, companies and the public services. We could be in for what the Chinese call “interesting times”: the political establishments of Europe have been thoroughly rattled, which is perhaps the one redeeming feature of this otherwise disappointing result.

Politicians and big business are going to have to take a long hard look at the way things have turned out, and who knows, they could finally start listening again to the voice of the people, who have just expressed their opinion in clear and uncompromising fashion. Let’s hope the establishment pay attention for a change.

Lingua franca is a blog (mainly) about matters linguistic by Anthony Withers, Managing Director, Anglia Translations Ltd. It reflects his personal view and not necessarily those of the company.

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