Brexit and Mental Health Europe

The UK has voted to leave the European Union after 43 years in a historic referendum. Leave won by 52% to 48% with England and Wales voting strongly for Brexit. Initial analysis is that voters in the UK – although not in Scotland – were more convinced by arguments about immigration than by the economic ones. But what does this mean for the rest of the EU? Will it impact MHE’s work?

Mental Health Europe Newsletter | Issue n°6 | June 2016
A word from…Akiko Hart, MHE Acting Director

Dear colleagues,The UK has voted to leave the European Union after 43 years in a historic referendum. Leave won by 52% to 48% with England and Wales voting strongly for Brexit. Initial analysis is that voters in the UK – although not in Scotland – were more convinced by arguments about immigration than by the economic ones. In terms of what happens next, it is important to recall that the ball will be in the UK’s court, nothing happens automatically. The UK Government will need to decide its tactics on whether and when to activate the article 50 mechanism in the Treaty for a country that wishes to leave the EU.

But what does this mean for the rest of the EU? Will it impact MHE’s work? In the longer term, with the UK no longer there to oppose the EU in the health and the social fields, it may create new opportunities for a more ambitious EU agenda. On the other hand, it may open the door to other EU leaders to rethink their role in the EU.It is time for the European Union to focus on its strengths and recall it is not only about trade and currency, but also about peace, cooperation, and advancing social rights. MHE hopes EU leaders will show firm commitment and leadership in starting a wider reflection on the future of the EU.

 

 

 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

1 COMMENT

  1. It’s kinda “funny”, but I’m here in NEW England, – New Hampshire, U.S.A., to be precise. I’ve been trying to follow the whole “Brexit” mess in the American press, and I don’t begin to have a serious opinion one way or the other. I just can’t find enough solid FACTS to decide whether I think Brexit is good or bad. But, I DO KNOW that Brexit was engineered by the “GREG B.’s”, as I call them. That’s “Global Ruling Elites and Global Banksters”. The Greg B.’s are NOT the friends of you and I. They ONLY CARE about money, power, and control. They want to make OUR money THEIR money, and OUR power THEIR power. They want MORE control over us. One of THEIR tools for extracting OUR money, and dis-empowering us, is the lies of the pseudoscience drug racket and means of social control known as psychiatry. They sell us dangerous, over-priced drugs, and that makes us easier to control, because the drugs debilitate us. So I think Brexit will be “6 of one, and 1/2 a dozen of the other.” In other words, a lot of little things will change, and that will create the *appearance* of great change, but in the bigger picture, nothing of substance will change. Also, the whole Brexit “controversy” serves to get us upset, and helps distract us from what’s really important. After Brexit, the same RICH and POWERFUL folks will still be in charge. Nothing of substance will change. That’s what I think, anyway. But what do I know? I’m just an escaped mental patient….

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