Will the divisions in the UK ever be healed?

The NW are still waiting for the other half of the £250 million which was promised by the government. After all we were/are the worst affected by this virus but appear to have been forgotten by Westminster----as per usual. Division ? You bet !!

Why do you think people without influence or power voted for the privileged people you mention NotSpaghetti?

I can understand the wealthy and those part of the "club" voting for their own kind, but it still baffles me that so many people voted (not just in the referendum) against their own best interests.

But it's not quite so simple as those with power and those without.

There are people, including some on GN, who go on about North London Oxbridge graduates, whom they seem to despise. Some of them do indeed have power, often in the media and the arts.

Farage and some of the drivers of Brexit deliberately smeared the "elite" (ie the North London Oxbridge types).

However, look at the people the country has ended up with in government. Johnson (the alleged populist) is an Oxford educated old Etonian from a privileged background. Farage went to Dulwich College. Cummings went to an independent school and Oxford and is married to the daughter of a baronet. And so it goes on … Most of the people currently pulling the strings (whether politicians or not) are from elitist backgrounds. Yet people voted them in with a massive majority!

I honestly think there's more to the big divides in our society than money and social status. People have written books about it, so I won't go on, but it's more to do with ideology - for example, small state versus a more integrated state, parochialism versus a more global outlook, etc. Apparently, one of the most indicators of whether people voted for Brexit was whether people believed in the death penalty.

if brexit crumbles I think you'll find that we have left the eu.

Well, we've sort of half left at the moment. If we persist in making it final by the end of the year we will be in deep trouble with a double whammy for the economy of the effect of Covid19 and a possible No Deal with the EU. In most sensible people's eyes that seems extremely foolish. We would be granted a further extension should we ask for it and it would seem wise to do that and sort out the problems of C19 before those of full Brexit.

While I'm sure there will be a chorus of voices saying that we can't possibly do that I just wonder what adverse effects have they suffered over the past four years since the referendum from still more or less being 'in the EU'? What effect could possibly be so bad that it justifies a rush to get out at this difficult time?

You are certainly right that there has been name-calling if you complain about the government though - especially Johnson - Dinahmo!

MPs, CEOS, bankers, those with significant family fortunes possibly -newspaper editors, ex-etonians (if not themself then through contacts)... People with influence.

I suppose I just feel we are divided by "power" and control.

Obviously we all sit on a spectrum but I know, for example I have no significant power and don't have the ear of anyone who does, Dinahmo.

It's just an observation. I haven't developed a theory about it though.

MayBee70
if brexit crumbles I think you'll find that we have left the eu.
We are in the transition/ trade talks now. If, on the 1st of Jan2021 we have not agreed on trade deals that is it, we are out.

The divisions in the UK are about values.

Nothing to do with the "elite" - not in the conventional sense anyway.

The clever thing about Brexit was the campaigners whipped up support from the foot soldiers for the "elite", who will be the big winners in the end. They persuaded them they were fighting the people who came out on top - twisting logic on its head. It was a masterful psychological stroke. It wasn't original. A certain little Austrian gave some thugs brown shirts and did the same thing over 80 years ago.

It depends what you call the elite. How do you define them NotSpaghetti?

The divisions in the UK are largely the elite and the rest I feel.

NO ,the divisions cant be healed ,they were caused by government lies and misinformation ,the £350 million on the bus for instance.Now we find out Cummings sister is a director of IDOX who were in control of postal votes....beggers belief doesn't it that the postal votes were so pro tory or maybe not .We in the independence movement have long had suspicions the postal votes in the 2014 referendum were interfered with..mainly because Ruth Davidson knew the results 3 minutes after the polls closed...either they were tampered with or she ;s clairvoyant .It might take some time for England to catch up with the dodgy politicians they have ..and there are a multitude of them ,look closely and they can be found .

If brexit crumbles it will be because it was won by feeding people lies. And repeating those lies over and over again. Having said that, the leave campaigners at the time seem to have judged the mood of the country correctly. Now the very same people that successfully won the referendum are trying to win yet again by lying.But this time I think they have totally misjudged the mood of the country. This afternoon is going to be very interesting.

I know nothing of what is going on in the United States but am shocked at Boris upholding one set of standards for the elite but expecting the rest of us to do what we are told.
Absolutely nothing to do with politics. Simply common decency.
I felt very sympathetic to Boris even though I don't agree with his politics, but no longer. Not only should Cummings go, Boris has shown that he too needs to go.