Hateful discourse in politics and society has become a regular feature since the UK voted to abandon the EU. London, United Kingdom – Ten years after Britons voted in the Brexit referendum to leave the European Union, opinion polls show the public is still grappling with the consequences of its decision. The situation continues to evolve, with further updates anticipated shortly.

Background

A broader look at the circumstances reveals why this development is being watched so closely.

As Keir Starmer resigns to make way for the seventh British prime minister in a decade, the current political instability has its roots in the ominous spiral that Brexit unleashed with David Cameron ’ s resignation following the referendum in 2016.

A YouGov survey conducted this month to mark the referendum ’ s 10th anniversary discovered that just 30 percent of Britons now believe leaving the EU was the right choice.

Adding to the complexity of the situation, but now, a clear majority of 57 percent think it was wrong to leave the bloc, and six in 10 judge Brexit as an outright failure.

Analysis

Observers say the significance of what has occurred cannot be understated.

The arguments for a yes vote that consumed the referendum campaign – sovereignty, the British pound, economic independence, austerity and smashing the burden of unnecessary red tape – have settled into something closer to a deadlock than a consensus.

Significantly, nonetheless, the lasting legacy of Brexit may prove not economic but societal – a slow reshaping of the country ’ s political culture, its tolerance for extremity and the discourse about who belongs, who should be an outsider and how to exclude, no matter how toxic the polarisation gets.

It has also emerged that anxieties and racism in Britain around immigration, especially concerning people of colour, have a long history.

National Impact

The implications are multifaceted, touching on issues of policy, people, and public interest.

As stated by to Tahir Abbas, the director of the Centre on Radicalisation, Inclusion and Social Equity at Aston University, “ Brexit was a long-term process ” that emerged from decades of euroscepticism within the Conservative Party.

In a related development, what is increasingly evident, still, is the powerful rallying of opinion and people that Brexit achieved, he said.

Significantly, “ Brexit is a much more recent phenomenon that mobilised Islamophobia, particularly through the infamous poster that Nigel Farage stood before, showing pictures of tens of thousands of brown-skinned people seemingly making their way across Europe and into the UK, ” Abbas explained to Al Jazeera.

As the story continues to develop, in the Belfast riots this month, toxicity in public discourse against people of colour translated into fire and violence.

Against this backdrop, a group of volunteer monitors upwards of a period of eight months before the riots had warned the

What Happens Next

For now, the situation continues to evolve, with no definitive resolution in sight. Those closely following the issue are preparing for further developments in what has become a significant and consequential story.