EU referendum: Campaign documents racism emerging from Brexit vote

Post Ref Racism created because of 'stark increase' in racist harassment and aggression

Sunday 03 July 2016 22:16 BST

A man tells another driver: 'Go back to your country' (YouTube/Shulem Stern)

A campaign has been set up to document incidents of racism emerging from the aftermath of the UK’s vote to leave the EU.

Post Ref Racism, which is active on Facebook and Twitter, was created because of a perceived “stark increase in racist harassment and aggression” following the narrow 52 to 48 per cent vote for Brexit.

The organisers wrote: “It seems that the referendum result has validated and vindicated racist views; racist behaviour is now shameless in its expression. This cannot go unchallenged.

“We must not stand by and tolerate the normalisation and mainstreaming of racism. Just because we’ve voted to leave the European Union DOES NOT mean there is a democratic mandate for racist harassment, aggression, intimidation or hate speech.

“This increase we are experiencing needs to be documented, and people need to feel equipped to shut down the racism they witness/experience (assuming it is safe to do so). That is why this space has been created.”

According to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, reports of hate crime have risen 57 per cent in the aftermath of the EU referendum vote.

There were 85 reports of hate crimes to True Vision, a police-funded reporting website, between Thursday and Sunday compared with 54 reports over the same period four weeks ago.

Rose Simkins, chief executive for Stop Hate UK, told The Independent the issue "may well get worse".

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

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1/66 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation – a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods – food and clothes being the most obvious – but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economy’s future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years’ time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget

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She said: "Hate Crime is generally very underreported but what we are seeing in the last few days is the result of more people being targeted and more people coming forward to report because of fear for their safety.

"We are talking to people who have never been targeted before and are now experiencing nasty abuse or people who have been but they have never reported before and are doing so now out of fear and because the frequency or the intensity of the abuse is increasing."

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EU referendum: Campaign documents racism emerging from Brexit vote

Post Ref Racism created because of 'stark increase' in racist harassment and aggression

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

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Campaign documents racism emerging from Brexit vote

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