Brexit Spawns Wave Of Hate Crimes And Racism In UK

A bout of racist and hateful activity across the UK has been connected to the decision of just over half of UK voters to pledge out of the EU in last Friday's national referendum. According to The Independent, over a hundred cases of racist and aggressive activities have been reported since the vote out. The first incidents broke through people sharing videos or images of racial abuse on social media. One Hackney resident, who identified himself as "a member of the Orthodox Jewish" community, posted a video on his Twitter page of a man getting out of his car to racially abuse another driver in Hackney, saying "go back to where you came from" and "speak proper English" despite the man protesting "I was born here". The footage was posted the morning after the vote results came in.

In other parts of the UK, people held racist banners with racist messages scrawled on them. One group in Newcastle held a homemade banner that read "Stop immigration. Start repatriation".

Channel 4 correspondent Ciaran Jenkins headed to Barnsley where, according to the BBC, 70% of people voted out, to find out why. More than several people told him and the camera directly that it was an attempt to stop immigration. The unidentified man in the clip (below) said the following: “It’s to stop Muslims coming into this country. Simple as that.” Jenkins then asks him: “Do you think you voted to leave the EU to stop Muslims coming to the country?” “To stop immigration. The movement of people in Europe, fair enough, but not from Africa, Syria, Iraq or anywhere else,” the man replied.

Other Twitter users were sharing images of hateful printed notices that were pushed through the letterboxes of Polish residents in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

It's hard to comprehend that such egregious hate survives in the UK, a multicultural nation, in 2016. While the open racism will be shocking to most, Baroness Warsi, the former government minister and co-Chair of the Conservative party, and the first Muslim Cabinet minister, predicted a spike in hate crimes when talking to Sky News on Sunday. Slamming the Brexit campaign as both "divisive and xenophobic" on live TV she said the animosity in the atmosphere was palpable post-Out vote. Last night, The Telegraph published a piece by Boris Johnson in which he stated, "It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration. I do not believe that is so." "I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe, and always will be," he added. For the majority of those who voted Remain there has been scepticism around Boris Johnson for both his impassioned "Out" campaigning and for his potential succession to Cameron as the next Prime Minister. Shortly after the vote, "#BuggerOffBoris" started to trend on Twitter, with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver getting involved via his Instagram account:

After David Cameron's announcement that he will step down in October, the campaign race for potential Prime Minister has heated up, and continues to divide people. The BBC reported this morning that the Chancellor of The Exchequer, George Osbourne, has declared Britain in a "position of strength" in regards to the economy, despite The Evening Standard reporting the pound hitting a low only seen 31-years ago against the U.S. dollar.

As Cameron announced in his post-Brexit speech, we should expect a new Prime Minister in time for the Conservative Party Conference in October. Until then, according to The Telegraph, George Osbourne has said there will be no emergency budget and that there will be a need for an "adjustment" to the budget, but not until a new Prime Minister is in place.