Being an outgoing student in 2020 is maybe one of the most challenging choices someone could make. However, if Co-vid 19 was not sufficient to profoundly modify people’s habits, within university and outside of it, the United Kingdom is also facing a different event, that leads to an increase in socio-economic and political instability: the so called Br-exit.
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (BoJo as the natives prefer to ironically address him) is under the spotlight in these days because of the many critics moved against him, for the way he is responding to the many crises he has to be involved in due to its position, and the historical moment.
Many critics have been moved, not only because at the outbreak of the pandemic he underestimated Covid19 with his awkward speech on the “herd immunity”, but also because he kept on putting off the national lockdown against the first rise in the contagious numbers, and he is still refusing to apply more severe restrictive measures, on behalf of a love to freedom that other European Countries value less, according to him.
Secondly, he has been working on the English divorce with the European Union for a year now, and after the edgy strike of the deal in last December, he is creating friction with the European Commission because of the terms of the commercial agreement which shall rule the relations between these two powers after 31 December 2020. Not by chance an infringement procedure has been started a few days ago by the EU commission after the violation of international law “Pacta servanda sunt” by the British PM, who withdrew from his position on the Backdrop agreement on the Northern Ireland border.
You may be questioning yourself what is the result of all the mentioned elements within English society. The British Premier has shown himself as unreliable and unpredictable, and, currently the English as well have started changing ideas on their vote in 2019. They are considering now the consequences of the hazardous and impulsive choices of BoJo, because they comprehend how many damages have been done at their expenses. Nevertheless, ideas such as the rooted conviction of coronavirus superficiality as well as a strong nationalism which seems not to be farsighted on the fig of this economic and political detachment, still fill the heads of many, especially the elders, who have different background and feel differently the choices of the conservatories.
So, the majority of adults do not wear a mask, and fills the streets carelessly, but the young are an example of an entirely opposite approach. They comply with the rules, and with the concept of “Household”, established by the same government to guarantee a minimum of social interaction, and are consistently rising as users of the NHS app, (the English counterpart of the italian “Immuni”).
Overall, the British can be considered as a population of contradictions, and now more than ever, their society is fragmented into generations. The funny characteristic, which is true almost everywhere, is that it is the old generation taking decision for the latest, however, this time the consequences of these choices may be far more difficult to be balanced by some counter-measure or revision. This time, United Kingdom is on the edge of a drastic step, from which there is no going back.
