Reinvigorate Commonwealth with Brexit

Great Britain is at a crossroads, with the effects of a traumatic referendum felt on a daily basis. The independence cry, touted by the Leave campaigners, did not take off; instead a cloud of uncertainty reigns over the altogether dull and wet British summer.

The only certainty is uncertainty, not just for the British people, but the entire world.
The UK Government spent months ramming home spine-chilling messages on the perilous consequences of a Brexit vote.

Prime Minister David Cameron and his principal lieutenant George Osborne gave several incendiary speeches prophesying insecurity and economic ruin for the UK, even warning of a traumatic recession.

Even though the Leave campaigners won the referendum, they have gone missing with the divisive Nigel Farage the only one hogging the limelight. There has been an unprecedented fallout in the political spectrum, with the two principal Leave campaigners, Justice Minister Michael Gove and flamboyant former London Mayor Boris Johnson, falling out. All of a sudden Mr Gove has come to the realisation that Boris is not a good leader.

The Labour party is in leadership limbo, with an uncertain future. The irony is that Britain still wants to access the European market although the European leaders have made it crystal clear that access to the free market comes at a price.

The primary price or cost is the free movement of people or in political terms, migration. Yes, immigration; one of the principal factors that contributed to Eurosceptism, leading to majority of the British people expressing their wish to painfully divorce from Europe.

With Britain exiting, the fear is that there might be a rise in the far right political parties including the Golden Dawn in Greece, AfD in Germany, the National Front in France with the potential of European disintegration, although for now the referendum vote seems to galvanise the leading EU countries like Germany and France. The primary fear among the locals I talk to here in Manchester is that the referendum outcome will fuel an already palpable and poisonous anti-UK sentiment among the other 27 members of the European Union.

The future need not be so dark and glum for the UK. Britain has an alternative future in strong economic partnership with the Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth, a conglomerate of countries with a human population that is over 2 billion strong, all who need clothing, housing, security, medication and other basic needs, factors that prove that Britain still has a promising burgeoning market in the commonwealth.

Indeed lost on the media has been the fact that the Leave vote was propped by a significant backing by UK residents from the Commonwealth countries, who have felt disenfranchised by the mother country turning to Eastern Europe for workers.

It is not obvious but certainly plausible that Commonwealth countries especially African countries can tap into the vacuum created by Brexit. The fundamentals of the British economy, the fifth largest in the world, are still strong.

Brexit and its aftermath that is shrouded in uncertainty, offers our leaders a window of opportunity. However, most African leaders are busy campaigning for election and therefore risk reducing their countries to insignificant nations.

The commonwealth therefore offers the UK a more compatible workforce than its eastern European neighbours.

We speak English and anyone who has worked with EU migrants will attest to the fact that they are so steeped in their ways including the fact that they have little interest in learning English.

The conglomerate that is the Commonwealth, offers its members an opportunity to construct post-Brexit relations that ensure economic wellbeing for all.

After all, the Queen is still the head of the commonwealth.