I want my future back.
One week ago I was filled with hope, this has been dashed from my hands. I work for a company that does a great deal of business with Europe. The nature of my business and its global structure mean that I am one of the lucky few who wont be redundant immediately.

I am a scientist. I studied at universities where my research projects graduate and postgraduate, were supported by EU grant funding. Because of this many of my colleagues were from other EU countries. In turn in my professional life is filled with EU citizens who are using their years of education to help build the innovative technologies that are then exported around the world. In turn my British scientist friends are scattered throughout the EU and EEA. working at CERN, the European Space Agency and countless businesses.

At work I hear the nervous chatter of people who have built up lives, marriages and careers over decades of life in Britain having it all taken away from them. Dozens of PhD's in well paid positions waiting for the dangling sword of Farageclese to fall.

I have struggled to get here, having had years of underemployment and unemployment. Last week my company was advertising vacancies, now our share price is falling, a victim of being a British business in Britain where jingoistic fantasy trumps economic reality. This frightens me.

In the lab, the labeling on the chemicals I handle is set by European directive. It was a Europe that was determined to protect its workers from harmful chemicals and pollutants that keeps me safe in my job. Its the pan-European stance on the environment that won't allow a country to destroy its air and water in the name of profit.

But its not just me, that's the point. It's about friends, family and thinking beyond oneself that is the anti-thesis of a vote against the wishes of those who will live with the repercussions for the rest of their lives. It is my family whose work in archeology was paid for as part of an EU drive to preserve our nations heritage. It my friends and family whose work in construction is threatened by economic collapse. It is my family living in areas receiving hundreds of millions of EU development money on infrastructure. It is my friends who are in the process of building lives across the continent. Its those I know and love in the public sector, struggling along after a decade of cuts and pay freezes. Its the elderly on a fixed income facing rising food an fuel bills as the pound is hammered down.

I want my future back, its not just about me and my concerns. I am fighting to remain, and I'll go down swinging. That's how its affected me most. Because I'm doing everything I can and urging everyone I know to do the same.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Mon 27 Jun 2016, 21:01, 4 replies)

gutted
lol
(Baggenfrock get fucked, Mon 27 Jun 2016, 22:07, closed)

Yes, because I believe
that Europe will simply disappear as soon as Article 50 is invoked?

If the infrasturcture was worth having before, it will be worth keeping.
(Anthony Burgess' Chocolate Orange, Wed 29 Jun 2016, 7:27, closed)

It's not necessary to be in the EU to study, live & work in each other's countries
Leaving the EU will simply mean that we have the power to end *automatic* freedom-of-movement. It doesn't mean that we won't be allowed to have anything to do with our neighbours.

All the EU citizens who want to live and work in the UK who have the right qualifications will be given permits to do so. Similarly, for British citizens on the Continent.

The people who will be refused permits are criminals, and people who do not have the skills we require.

I take it that your CERN colleagues aren't exclusively made up of people from EU countries? I'm sure there must be the odd Canadian, or Indian citizen working there? How do you think that they are able to do so? With permission, of course.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Sun 10 Jul 2016, 16:21, closed)

Yeah that'd be really convenient, but it's not the reality. The reality is, you won't have a clue what the reality is until you've negotiated your exit from the EU.
( ferret -> twitter.com/syfyautocorrect <-, Tue 12 Jul 2016, 11:44, closed)