Tab Guide to Brexit and the Labour Crisis
In the aftermath of the vote that shook Facebook feeds to their core, we look at what Brexit has actually brought us.
We know it’s summer and everyone’s brain has taken a brief holiday, so here are the highlights of the most dramatic period in British politics.
Lindsay Lohan’s unexpected, if passionate, involvement
Much like our casual acquaintances on Facebook, Lindsay Lohan revealed a political side we had never encountered before, following the vote and loudly tweeting to advocate for the Remain Campaign.
Vice Chancellor communicates with students
In a relatively unheard of turn of events, the Vice-Chancellor himself reached out via email to Cantabs, reassuring students of Cambridge’s post-Brexit future. Undergraduates would later drown under the flood of similarly vague, reassuring emails from University and College staff.
Jeremy had a few bad days, and Malia arrived to cheer everyone up
NUS President-elect Malia Bouattia spoke at the Momentum Rally, a rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party following the wave of resignations from members of his shadow cabinet. One leader accused of antisemitism defending another. (but that’s none of my business.)
After finding himself embroiled in what has been referred to as a “Blairite Coup”, and also referred to as “the crumbling of the Labour party”, and also referred to as “the actions for much needed reform”, Jeremy Corbyn found himself embroiled in another round of antisemitism allegations after comparing the actions of the Israeli government to those of Islamist extremists, after the launch of a review into antisemitism in the Labour party. It hasn’t been a great week for Jez, and it doesn’t look to be getting better.
Nigel Farage backpedalled all the way out of the UKIP leadership
The pint drinking, unsettlingly muppet-like UKIP leader was one of the first faces British people saw on the morning after the vote, as he desperately took back the statement that the supposed “£350m a week” that the UK was sending to the EU would now be spent on the NHS.
He did, however, remain consistent in his passionate love of dramatically resigning from things. Having achieved his dream of giving Britain an “indipendence day”, Farage decided to give himself one too, stating that he “wanted his life back” on July 4th. One can assume that he will spend his newfound free time doing much the same he did before: yelling at foreigners and going to pubs.
We got a new Prime Minister
After the soap opera stylings of Johnson/Gove backstabbing, the Tory leadership race came down to Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. But then Leadsom made some comments about how she’s a mum and May isn’t, and things seemed to unravel from there.
With May being the last Tory standing, we are suddenly hurtling headfirst into a Cameron-less Britain, for the first time in 6 years. It’s the end of the Oxford-educated boys, and the beginning of the Oxford-educated woman. How things change.
Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor demanded an end to the uncertainty
Closer to home, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz called for an end to the ambiguity surrounding the future of EU citizens working and studying in the UK. One in every ten Cambridge undergraduates and 20% of grad students are EU citizens.
The Vice-Chancellor promised that he would discuss the pressing matter with May.