On the 23rd of June, the British will cast a ballot that would perhaps define the future of their country for generations.
The referendum on the United Kingdom’s European Union membership will be decided tomorrow, which may have been obvious given how loud the disinformation campaign has been the past week.
There are already threats of a civil war by EU council president Jean-Claude Juncker, a warning of a total economic collapse from various news outlets and Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that World War III would happen if Britain leaves the EU.
It is obvious the Remain camp was getting desperate, especially as polls still show that the Remain/Leave votes were neck-and-neck.
One can understand their anxieties, the Remainers simply have too much to lose if ‘Brexit’ occurs. They are propped up by big banks, prominent celebrities and the leaders of the two establishment parties – Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn.
Just last month, the pro-Remain campaign raised 14 million pounds sterling from two wealthy donors – a hedge fund manager named David Harding and supermarket tycoon, Lord Sainsbury.
It also registered two ostentatious donations from big banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Investment firm, Tower Ltd. Partnership also donated £500,000.
Airline companies, Eurostar and France’s Airbus, also invested in the Remain camp since it is clear that a Remain victory favors their enterprise the most.
Despite the lucrative funding, the mainstream media is still depicting the Leave campaign to be the party of the financial elites. In reality, it is the complete opposite.
The demographic poised to empower the Leave vote is the working class, the millions of poor, regional Britons who are victims of the death of the manufacturing sector and a declining fisheries industry courtesy of EU policies.
That is another trump card for the Leave campaign, the legions of EU workers that have flocked to the British workforce – mostly from less prosperous EU member states such as Poland and Romania who have been attracted by the Pound Sterling.
This increase of competition for labour has displaced many British workers from employment, as well as causing a stagnation of wages.
At the same time, manufacturers who once held their operations in Britain have fled to other European Union states thereafter. The most noteworthy casualty being the country’s once thriving steel industry.
The biggest benefactor from the union is Germany, and they too are the heirs of Britain’s former manufacturing prowess.
Immigration is another big issue for the referendum, with millions of British voters disgruntled at the inundation of a foreign population that has dramatically changed the appearance of places like London.
According to the latest census, in 2011, the number of UK citizens born overseas rose five points to 13% of the population from 2001.
Last year, the UK recorded their second highest migration number – at 333,000. Half of this number comes from other EU nations, where other EU passport holders enjoy restriction-free travel.
All this, despite the UK having a profound housing crisis leaving many native-born British people homeless or already finding it difficult to meet rent or mortgage payments.
The frustrations of the pro-Brexit voters as well as the momentum of the Leave campaign is charged by a sentiment of having lost control of their own nation.
They have lost their jobs to a foreign population, they have lost control of their borders because of the imposition of EU laws.
And because they have been foisted with laws from a foreign bureaucracy the British also feel that they have lost control of their own legislature. They did not elect the EU Council, why should they heed to EU mandates?
Therefore, Brexitis going to happen because the British populace – at least the majority who will vote for Leave – want to “take their country back”.
For many, that mantra is reminiscent to a racist or a xenophobic campaign. However, when you feel like you’re at the bottom of the pile in your own country you too, would feel a desire to take back what has been lost.
The odds may be stacked against them, with the two main political parties, the big banks and the influential aristocrats all lined up to stop the Leave campaign.
Yet reports of first time voters registering and a reinvigorated nationalist sentiment are sending chills to the Remainers’ spines. The polling numbers also give the Leave campaign with a fighting chance to pull an upset.
If Brexit indeed succeeds, it would be a huge blow to the establishment by ordinary British citizens.