Brexit incidents

Children are being bullied at schools just because they are Polish, said Barbara Drozdowicz, CEO at East European Resource Centre, a trustee at Focus on Labour Exploitation, in one of The Agenda programme episodes, hosted by Tom Bradby. She raised the subject of post-Brexit Polish experiences.

According to the latest figures, thousands of Polish people living in the United Kingdom are considering leaving Britain because of the huge increase in community tensions in their neighborhoods’. In at least hundred cases recently, Polish people were victims of racially motivated discrimination. Today, they can not feel comfortable in their work, school or even in the local buses, anymore. This fact was highlighted in the last week Agenda programme. Tom Bradby was discussing post-Brexit Britain situation with his guests:

• Nicky Morgan – a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Loughborough since 2010;
• Suzanne Evans – a journalist and a politician associated with the UK Independence Party;
• Jeremy Paxman – an English broadcaster, journalist and author;
• Griff Rhys Jones – a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter;
• Allison Pearson. – is a Welsh author and newspaper columnist;

I found it highly interesting because some of the issues that were discussed affect me and my peers in some ways. What drew my attention the most was Barbara’s Drozdowicz point of view about the Poles. While listening to her statement I realized that it may also happen to me if I was in a wrong place at the wrong time, and just because I am from Poland. She mentioned that after EU Referendum the Poles can not feel safe in Britain anymore. They became victims of different crimes at different places. One of thousand examples is that in Cambridgeshire, leaflets were apparently distributed with “Leave the EU/NO more Polish vermin written in both English and Polish” – The Washington Post. The majority of those crimes were led by people who voted to leave the EU.

I’m not saying that everybody who voted to leave the EU is racist but some people just simply made use Brexit to show their real emotions without any guilt. Although, considering information published on social media networks I came to the conclusion that, unfortunately, the significant amount of voters who voted for leaving the EU are racists. That is why they now feel free to spread their fierce convictions. Coming back to Barbara’s Drozdowicz opinion, she shortly described how Polish people must deal with many obstacles after EU Referendum. She also mentioned the increase of bullying at British schools. Someone may think that children have nothing to do with politics. However, kids usually copy their parents’ behavior. So it all comes from home. So, how the Poles can feel comfortable in the country in which they are living for years? This question arose from the viewer’s statement.

In response, one of The Agenda guests – UKIP’s Suzanne Evans, apologized for that but she said that “If somebody is a nasty racist bully then they gonna be nasty racist and the Brexit is not an excuse for them”. However, she sees leaving the EU as a positive thing. She tried to defend her position by listing positives of EU Referendum. Despite the current situation, I’d say that we can’t really say how it will be after leaving the EU. Nowadays, we can only assume the future. In some years we will see if it was a good or bad decision.