Everything you know about Brexit is wrong | Gurminder Bhambra | TEDxBrum
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2024
- So, Brexit? Gurminder Bhambra deeply explores the idea of Britain as a nation and challenges dominant narratives on the recent vote for Britain to leave the European Union. Gurminder K Bhambra is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex. Previously, she was Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick and Guest Professor of Sociology and History at Concurrences Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at Linnaeus University, Sweden.
She is author of Connected Sociologies (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014) and Rethinking Modernity (Palgrave, 2007), which won the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for best first book in 2008. She curates the Global Social Theory website and is co-editor of the free online magazine, Discover Society.
Her current research addresses colonial and postcolonial legacies within Europe and how the project of the European Union, and exit from it alike, are shaped by those legacies.
www.gkbhambra.net | globalsocialtheory.org | discoversociety.org
@gkbhambra | @globalsoctheory | @DiscoverSoc This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
I still struggle to understand how some people are so blinded by their own insecurities that they cant see the world for what it really is.
I never bother with anyone who says “Everything you know about such-and-such is wrong” An overused and arrogant trick.
Yeah. Better believe someone promising Sunlit Uplands for all, innit
@@YouD0ntSay Absolutely. The EU does it all the time.
And how do you feel about that now Brexit has demolished the UKs economy for at least the next 10 years champ? And where is Farage? He resigned and flew off into the sunset. Reich Whinge idiots fall for every gimmick and trick, then when the cows come home they look to blame everyone else, pure insanity
@Shawn Vogt Hi Shawn. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, this is just a bit of harmless fun.... but how did you reach this conclusion about how "smart" I am? (I assume you mean "smart" to mean "intelligent" which is more UK than USA.) Or was it just one of those silly insults with no particular meaning attached to it?
@@uncannyvalley2350 cheer up mate we are back in change of our own nation again
There was a pledge to fund the NHS with an extra £350 million was there? I missed that, I remember there being a bus with the word "let's"...
Wow! Excellent talk. Learned a lot. Thank you. Had never considered it from that angle.
Well done! New interesting angles to explore further! Thank you!
A good thought provoking talk. And one that isn’t about Brexit, but rather is about how some British people see the UK.
And in the comments there’s plenty of Brexit-supporting racists who have shut off their minds and refuse to listen to anything that might challenge their view of the world. Sad, but not surprising anymore.
Very good. You can see from the range of comments below the people that wish to remain and the levers that really don't understand. We also seem very proud of the fact they don't understand.
A couple of years later, many who voted to leave are quietly thanking those of us who had the clearer view of the true nature of the EU and - thank heaven - voted to leave.
Why? Why are they grateful?
She's a member of the tribe that gave Remain the kiss of death.
With the south there’s some things to remember: the south has a lot of working class areas, many costal communities and isolated small ( often with ageing populations ) towns/villages (e.g. those in Kent) too. Also arrogant, little/middle England often elderly wealthy people.
Reading these comments I realize that those who have the least of value to say are the most determined to speak.
Democracy fails because success requires an educated populace.
Thank you for bringing to notice the immigration numbers of eastern Europeans post ww2. These lesser publicised numbers reveal a perspective not thought of before.
Yes, but people will naturally notice non-white immigration more. If you see a Pole or an Irishman walking down the street, you won't know they are an immigrant unless you stop and talk to them. Someone of a different race naturally stands out more. Also if they wear a sari, or a Muslim headscarf, or a turban, or dreadlocks because it is part of their former country's culture, they are naturally going to be more visible in Britain. Hence when people think of immigration it is natural that they tend to think of Asians and African/ Caribbean.
I was intrigued until she used anecdotal evidence to back up her point.
But anecdotal evidence is used constantly by Brexiteers, racists and nationalists.
Typical tactics of those who want to overturn democracy... It's all about feelings (again)
@@MatthewMcVeagh oh look, smear smear smear, all you folks have.
@@DousedInPiss My comment wasn't a smear, it was a valid argument against the OP's point.
@@MatthewMcVeagh Ahhh yes, calling people racists and nationalists is a "valid argument".
The fact you actually think proves PERFECTLY what's wrong with you folks.
what she failed to mention about Irish migrants they too had problems when they first arrived in England if my history serves me right.
Thanks for that. "Britain never a nation, always an empire" - never thought of it that way but can quite see the speaker's argument.
Thankyou Gurminder - I thought I wanted to leave the EU because of it's Kalergi past and the effect the future of AI and automation will have on the need for worker migration.
But you've shown me that none of that matters?
Fantastic talk I've just followed Gurminder @GKBhambra on twitter fascinating. ♡
Very succinct analysis. I would add that the much of the problem is with English identity, rather than British identity. Many English have never come to terms with their imperial past or with the UKs role in the world, post empire.
Everything you just said was a complete falsehood, mate. Scotland was England's partner in crime, and England is frequently scapegoated for all the bad stuff the Empire did. It was called the BRITISH Empire for a reason.
@@MattanzaMafiaFedora First of all, I didn't just say it mate, i posted it 4 Years ago.
Secondly, while Scotland was England's imperial partner, it was dominated by the English: English games, English laws, adopted in Westminster in England, and they were written in the English language, which of course replaced Scots Gaelic.
''Britishness'' became a container to hold English nationalism.
Now that overarching Britishness is declining, English nationalism is emerging again, though there is no popular political voice articulating it or cultural expression of it. This is why the English ended up leaving the wrong union, exploited as they were by their feudal overlords who convinced them to vote against their own national, social and economic interests.
How can a multifaceted political decision be declared wrong by someone? You have to conclude that she is either simple in the mind or obscenely arrogant. Some people stated they didn't like having ony 7% of the mandate in the EU (we want our country back), others didn't like the fact that the UK had to give a net £12 billion a year to foreign EU infrastructure projects, some didn't like EU open borders and free movement of people policy, others didn't like EU immigrants over supplying the job market and driving wages down to the minimum wage, some didn't like the fact that the ECJ stopped the UK deporting terrorists, some didn't like the UK benfit system being abused by EU free loaders, some didn't like EU carbon credits driving up their fuel bills, ... and that's just the primary reasons
Hizzy Voltaire I guess you can when you disagree with it. You might have multiple reasons, but the objective consequence is the same. The vote to leave. And if you disagree with the leaving you can disagree with the multiple reasons for leaving.
Hizzy Voltaire
Except that the UK mandate is nearer 10%, the net EU bill is £8.6m benefit fraud by EU migrants is tiny compared to that of the indigenous population (even relatively - they come here to work), carbon emissions control is important if we are to avoid a climate disaster and would not have had such an effect upon fuel bills if the government (you know which one) had not given over energy production into the private sector or the UK had invested more in clean energy - not the fault of the EU.
she never "declared it wrong" anywhere. Listen again. You are obviously a scared Leave voter, frightened that his decision will be overturned. It won't be. And you should be worried about that.
Another example of invading a nation without firing a shot. A truly present day phenomenon.
I will watch it later!
When I worked for TEDx the policy was to keep away from politics but it doesn’t seem the case now.
Some interesting information though.
Very true as regards many white middle class people also voting for Brexit, particularly the older 'empire nostalgia' types and those who read Daily Mail/Express.
zavi13 you are brain washed
I know right?!?! it's not like all the big banks, most multi national corperations, all political parties minus ukip, almost all online, tv and radio media, celebrities and tech giants were remain right?.... oh wait...
0:30 It wasn't a pledge.
Europe should make brexit as hard as possible for the UK.
Make an example of them.
Whenever the subject of brexit comes along, the first point they make is immigration and that they want their country back "Britain should be British", then they get so sensitive when someone points out that racism has something to do with this madness.
Just leave, Europe will be way better without your negativity on every single subject.
BaalHammon 89 We’re trying to but the shonky EU is trying to stop us. Now, will shut you up?
The EU is not trying to stop us leaving - they have been very clear that they respect our decision.
What is stopping us is that some British politicians care about protecting the British economy and know that leaving without a plan is insanity. But Theresa May lost her majority and is now relying on the lunatics in her party and the DUP who want to sabotage any attempt to protect the British economy.
The internal fighting inside the Conservative Party is what is stopping Brexit progressing.
Oh you poor soul... You're a walking parody if what a remainer is... Instantly your first sentence proves you don't give a damn about making things better for people... You just want suffering.
The government needs to stop corporate house speculation and forcing house prices up. Houses are not Commodities.. they are for people to live in and afford. 🏠 🇬🇧
Courageous speech.
Still waiting for her to make a point.
She made point after point after point.
Matthew McVeagh Rather meandering around points and insinuating racism?
She didn't insinuate racism, she talked about it and looked for the sources of it. And where was the meandering?
Great listening skills there. She made it 30 times and you heard none.
I don't believe for one second that someone said we voted to leave why haven't you left yet. That didn't happen.
Kind of thing that was reported by the BBC but I have not personally seen a single such incident.
“And by entering the EEC we went on to having status on the world stage”. Conjecture.
And at that point, as white middle class voter, I’m pressing stop on this video.
What is it with remainers and the empire?
Gurminder Bhambra is spot on and correct
Well of course!.
I enjoyed hearing this lady speech. It seems about right
Many commenters below obviously didn’t bother to listen to this insightful talk
This is certainly some interesting mental gymnastics on the subject...
It does not matter who voted for BREXIT, what matters is that democracy is carried out.
jimmy s
Democracy is dependant upon being fully informed when casting a vote and having the right to change one’s mind.
Poor start quoting NHS cash which wont be available until we leave, no backtracking involved
As a professor, she's rubbish. Most people I know weren't around when the British Empire was still running. Most people, in my opinion - which is highly influenced by the people I spoke to before and after the vote, voted to leave because they'd had 40 years experience of the failing EU & had been hoping for years for an opportunity to vote out, as it truly is diametrically opposed, in almost every respect, with UK society.
She's over-analysing a simple process to justify her job.
The British Empire officially ended with the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, so chances are you do know a lot of people that were around. But if we take the date of 40 years from the Brexit vote - which is 1977, and point out that the process of decolonization was still going on at that point with places like Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe).
That aside, nothing about the process of the UK leaving the EU is simple and making vague unsubstantiated notions of being "diametrically opposed" is not an argument.
Deep down, despite the cognitive dissonance you are experiencing, you know that Britain and soon to be England is just a small part of an Island, overcrowded for sure, but with a ruling class that has seized the (in)glorious opportunity to convince us, the "lower classes" and the precariat, that Britain never was the maker of its own laws and rules after joining the EU and hence it "must all be the EU's fault! ".
Utter Tosh. All countries in the EU make their own laws and decisions in terms of migration and most other matters. Britain has just mismanaged itself after the breakdown of the empire.
It is ridden with class strife and disdain. It has become an authoritarian state, with an obsession with CCTV and social control. It takes capitalism and the idea of "have and have nots" to the extreme and thereby creates a growing wealth and opportunity gap - which, in turn creates a terrible subliminal resentment which, as we have seen in last-century history always leads to the big search for the scapegoat.
Well now the scapegoat for Britain's self inflicted malaise is the EU.
Face up to the fact that outside the EU Britain would have been a insignificant island in world economic terms.
Remember all the evidence of a class divide (nay, Gulf) - the Monarchy and it's entourage of Lords, Ladies, near or distant Royal Families with bursaries, the system of appointments and chronyism in politics, bureaucracy and the Judiciary. The privileges of public school "old boys", the cover ups of government and authority failings exemplified by Hillsborough, Grenfell, Bloody Sunday, the NHS crises, Poll Tax Riots, deaths in police custody, the appalling state of our prisons and the inhumane conditions of inmates, the collapse of Social Care, the fleeing of Doctors, nurses and teachers, the tax avoidance and evasion schemes used by so many privileged, etc., etc., etc.
These are not issues of EU failings - they are issues of the British governments failure to create a functional, democratic and economically and socially fair and viable state!
I think her thought was not that we were alive then, but to highlight how things that happen in the past can have a big impact in the future.
Feelings and thoughts get passed down through generations.
@@ulicadluga you wrote that so eloquently, I love it when I read comments like yours!
Erm. Guys. Democracy doesn't actually mean voting once then living with it whatever happens, that's why we have elections every 5 years.
She is totally correct about the context. And the context is the most important factor in designing a successful Brexit, with right view of how to relate to the rest of the world. Britain failed to move from a colonial mindset to one that put mutual respect and global trade partnership as the path to properity. It now has a 2nd chance to get it right. But policy makers are still in fear mode.
Statistics can be made to support any argument with the correct amount of manipulation.
The Brexit vote was NOTHING to do with empire, nor immigration from the Commonwealth. Right up until the late 1990's immigration was not an issue because of the low numbers - averaging 30,000 people a year.
Then Tony Bliar threw the doors open, and net migration increased by 10x. THAT is when immigration became an issue. Its about NUMBERS, not about race, nor skin colour. It's still running at 250,000 people a year. That's the equivalent of the City of Newcastle, every single year. That's how much housing, schools, hospitals and infrastructure we have to build every year, just to stand still!
It is sad that some people see BREXIT as a colour issue. I am an immigrant and non white and voted for BREXIT.
Errrm, well, the PM said today that leaving the EU WILL provide more money for the NHS, it wasn't a lie by the leave campaign after all - soooo what's your point exactly?
The Tories spending more on the NHS? Are you for real? The Tories always spend about half as much on the NHS than Labour, and that's being in the EU to boot.
The money we used to send to the EU was membership fees for the running of the club which transformed the UK from the "sick man of Europe" in 1973 to the 5th largest economy in 2016. Money well spent in my view.
But we've left and rocky times lie ahead.
@@iamreg1965 oh you sad little brainwashed tool... You're just repeating talking point... Literally on Johnsons 1st week in office he signed a 32bn pound increase to NHS funding.
Who did the audio on this? Frustrating scratchy sound all the way thru
Some prefer democracy and some pefer dictatorship. Each to their own.
David Davis is o one. He said,"If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy”
Democracy is a continuing process. As we are given new information it is our democratic duty to consider it and an MP's sworn duty to do what is best for the country.
Thank you for the excellent speech. The truth hurts the Brexshit.
The title is wrong. In Scotland and NI, we knew what a disaster it would be and that's why we voted to remain.
You also have virtually no immigration to Scotland and NI. I don't think you understand the reality of losing your own country.
Most of the English , Scots Welsh and Irish are descended from Basque settlers who came here 7.5 -15,000 years ago. So she is wrong. The British nation is as old as above stated.
Its almost like its culture differences and not other nationalities that matter or skin colour
your View Was valid. In London it may still be valid. The remaining 58 million people have different views. Rural areas have no infrastusture for 1000's of people. Great Britain is not London. Either London goes alone(as i think will happen) or the powerbase expands in thought or presence. .. have to go yorkshire puddings just rready x
could not would.
I find it impossible to believe that a person would walk up to another and say I voted to leave why haven't YOU LEFT? That is a grammatically impossible statement to make. As a Jamaican I also think she gave bad stats. Ut Of the vast family members I niece wanted to remain. Somehow I think South East and East London got missed because no one went to Brixton, Peckham, Woolwich or Hackney and Dalston did they, hmmmm I think not.
You can be a citizen if you want. I'm happy being a common law sovereign.
Even if the nice person on stage would have had something interesting to say, it is utterly ruined by her earring bumping the mic every 2-3s. Is TEDx now a new brand for "TED (but without any form of professional production)"
We entered "The European Economic Community" yes,,, Nothing was said to the people about it becoming a political union.? we were originally lied too?
It is written in the treaty of Rome, that the EEC or the EU respective is a political union. You weren't lied to by the EU. British politicians just sold it to you as an economic union. They knew full well what they signed up for because they read the contracts.
Ahhhhhh her earring
Irritating isn't it?
I as a working class English man feel more comfortable with, as you say a second generation immigrant of our empire than the current immigrants of Catholic eastern European countries.
We want to be outward facing to our global allies than protective to our Arian continental neighbors.
As you should see we want your colour to trade with not white EU social nationalship.
Gurminder does have a point about British citizenship being a new idea. However she makes the same mistake she implies others do in assuming Brexit can be boiled down to one thing - namely immigration. Also that only the Leave campaign is to blame for the outcome, when the Remain campaign went completely OTT with Brexit threats that haven't materialised.
I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing that TED and TEDx would stop speakers who do these sorts of cheerless tirades against Trump or Brexit (or vice versa). Every speaker who cannot say three genuinely positive points about the case for the other side should be refused a slot until they can genuinely see that perspective.
What's so hard to understand that Britain wants to remain British, not 'multicultural' ???
How much information can be collected about how individuals vote? Those who do the surveys seem to know an awful lot...or do they take 20 people in a room and extrapolate from there?There is such a thing as an educated twit...we voted leave because we were upset about losing the empire...you can't be serious!
What does it matter who voted???
Misleading title, should have been "Everything I think you know about Brexit is wrong, allow me to put some words in your mouth and then let me tell you how wrong you are." I don't believe there would have been a vote to leave were it not for the banking crisis in 2008 - which lead on to the Greek bailout and ultimately the crushing of the Greek peoples democratic choices - which resulting in me watching many talks by Yanis Varoufakis. Any of which I recommend over this one - for a deeper understanding of the referendum results.
She just repeated the establishment narrative around Brexit.
So true, she put it very well. Poor Brits are so dependent on the USA.
I think most British people accept the situation now with a multi-ethnic/cultural society. The problem has occurred when the Blair administration removed the existing limitations in the 1990s. The flood of people that have you come into the country since, well over 5 million and still entering even today have really put all the present social systems including the NHS into a chronic state of breakdown. The housing stock is completely inadequate. This has resulted in a massive building program which is despoiling large parts of rural UK and leading to terrible congestion around most of the Cities and Towns. Cornwall is now well on the way to full urbanisation throughout the County for instance. There are large estates springing up around every town, village and City in the County. My thoughts are on the lines: what happens when the food imports start to get disrupted? We can only safely feed about 30 million people in this country, we are heading towards 70 million! Water supply is another issue in many areas as is energy supply. The current rush towards renewables is completely inadequate to meet our needs, nuclear is the only method that can supply base load in adequate amounts if we phase out fossil fuels. The demonisation of CO2 is one of the stupidest things that has happened in the last 30 years and is costing all of us dear.
Wow that's really educational for me!
Ha, noh aa hilley.
So thankfully I'm informed now although I did know that Britain wasn't a nation already, the Kingdom of Great Britain being formed after the 1707 Acts of Union. Britain was, in the same way, never an Empire.She actually says Empire thirteen times, and Brexit ten, it's now 2019, how about lets all move on?
I don't see what's wrong with a point system similar to what Australia has. If you're coming into the UK you will need to be working and make a contribution. What is wrong with that? In return you will get the free privileges of the NHS etc. I love a multi-cultural society, its very interesting to learn about other cultures. Brexit is not a colour issue it is about making a proper contribution to society if you want to enter the UK.
But the people who entered Britain from Europe also had to work to get access to benefits.
Unfortunately it's not computational by previously constructed demographics.
Analyse it by this: - Where did you get your news from? Middle class people (certainly the older types) get their news from The Telegraph and The Express. - The young don't read newspapers, - they voted remain en masse. Try it on any given dimension.
"What source did you use for daily/weekly news one year before the referendum?" - That is the source of the construction.
Brexit was not about stopping immigration, but controlling it. This can only be done when we can make our own laws. The amount of immigration in the past is very different to the free movement of today. It is not now not need based.
Tiocfaidh ár lá- thanks Brexiteers, you’ve pretty much guaranteed a United Ireland :)
This is extraordinarily disconnected from reality. I dont know if it is intentional propoganda or ignorance. A good example of what is what is wrong with some of our Universities, if nothing else. That's 15 minutes of being exposed to thinly disguised anti British prejudice I will never get back. Someone needs a good psychologist.
Immediately a lie there was never a pledge of increasing NHS spending. The bus ad' suggested we could.
The idea in what Bhambra says that goes deepest is that the UK wants to be generous. It has always been, a home for people who had nowhere else to go. And I am moved to ask how many of the Kings and Queens of England have been English - oops!
William the Conq., French; the Plantagenets and Angevins and so on? French! The ap Tudor King at Bosworth Field hails from Wales. The Stuarts were Scots, from far away at that time. And then we get gentlemen and ladies from the House of Orange, which is Dutch of course. And Hanover is in Germany, so in 1716 we are German, and then the Mountbatten-Windsors are half Greek, of all things, half German. What do they have in common? This happy (or not so happy) lands, its kindly and courteous ways - and there we are - kindly and courteous. How can we deny that?
So the vicious and hard to credit comment to Bhambra on the street is not the English way or the UK way or any other decent way for that matter.
William the Conqueror was Norman Viking, France wasn't even a country then !??!
Neither was the UK !?!?!
Liza von Sachsen Hannover is an immigrant! Living on the taxes of British people.
Is that the best you can do ?!
Pure propaganda and misinformation.
Oh dear. I was born in 1948 and am British with an intimate history of the post war years having grown up in London Finsbury Park. I hold the view that an omission in the wide post debate of Brexit is a view of a Europe wherein there exists no balance of power and Germany and France are not to be trusted. Bismark would be pleased. It is an affront to our democratic institutions fought for and developed over 12 generations and which I do not surrender lightly even at an economic cost -I live in France! It is a demonstration by me of what it means to be British.
Madam, you have the floor as a professor at a British university but what you have to say about 'Everything I know about Brexit is wrong', appears selective, personal and shaped more as a perceived victim of intolerance that to me distances yourself from what it is to be British and no credit to your position as a seeker of truth.
But we do at least have that in common. I too in my life time have met with abuse and distress from people of another culture and none to protect me. Kindly do not blame us British for our politicians!
M
0
As I understand it, we are still handing over this £350 million to Brussels, so it still cannot be used for the N.H.S., or for anything else, so I don,t see her point.
Let's have another referendum.
Hard to hear over her mic issues
But I thought this IS the dominant narrative...
You miss the most important point that the population of the UK is limited by it's infrastructure today. There is a lack of housing and schools and the ability to deal with more uncontrolled migration that puts more pressure on the NHS . It is not possible to build ahead without a accurate crystal ball and unlimited open purse.
Stephnr Downie - So the 6th largest economy of the world is not able to provide basic necessities for the people. This means the government is incompetent and has to be replaced.
The Labour government prior to 2010 was planning ahead and did create a fund specifically to build up services in areas with population increases.
The Tory-Lib Dem coalition got rid of that fund, so that areas where the population was growing did not receive the funds they needed.
Chirs, what ever mate. Labour had ten years of growth and done nothing but expand how much of it they give away. And let the market crash with nothing in the bank and acted all surprised.
Interesting how having a British passport makes you British,
yet having a Chinese passport doesn't make you Chinese.
Do we actually have any values we can stand behind, or are we so open to other cultures we lack one of our own?
Self identifying middle class does not make you middle class.
A very poor TED talk. She starts with an obvious mis-representaion of the facts and goes downhill from there. No, I never made it to the end, I should have noted the thumbs ratio. Standards are slipping, TED, slipping...
350 billion to the NHS ? IT' ended up even more even more than that. Shared family. language, culture and religion probably helps re European immigration.
British passports is one thing - EU passport is another
I was expecting a talk about Brexit, not racism
Sorry nothing new learned here.. trading partners yes... political union no...
It's shocking how many people that voted to leave the EU seek out pro-eu speeches/videos just to complain or to squeal their childish catchphrase 'get over it!', as if it's a non-league game of football - understand that 16,141,241 British citizens voted to remain in the EU. they can debate, discuss, write or speak on the issue as much they would like.
Zachary Shaw - "It's shocking how many people that voted to leave the EU seek out pro-eu speeches/videos just to complain or to squeal their childish catchphrase 'get over it!', as if it's a non-league game of football"
To be fair, they can debate, discuss, write or speak on the issue as much they would like.
Zachary Shaw You lost, GET OVER IT!!
LORENZA ANTONUCCI not Lorenzo Antonucci.....
And all because,,,, we are more than just a star on someone elses flag :)
Havent you left yet?
Brexit is a great example of democracy. The people have spoken and the future is what it will be.
Were all fell for torie lies and voted to leave
The advancements of all European nations have benefited the world.
Always about the self interest group of people who think everything will go around their selfish, arrogant and greedy motives.
Oh goodness. You ted talkers cant see the forest for the trees.