ACCESS
Photograph contributed by George, November 2020.
George is a white man in his 60s. He identifies as British middle-class. He lives in a market town in the East Midlands. George voted to leave the EU.
the north is being hit hard
I think that is another reason why we’ve had that band in that lower class, working class, up in the north, you know, the North East, North West, where you’ve got the lower paid jobs, the factory jobs, the unskilled jobs, where people have had to go out to carry on putting that meal on the plate, you know? So that is why I think the north is being hit hard is because of these…you know, it’s like London; people are better geared, or it’s the type of work, but in London people are better geared up to switch on their Apple Mac and sit there tapping away, you know, doing some financial thing in the background, so they were better set up for that, whereas the guy in Middlesbrough couldn’t do that.
Tim is a white British man in his 50s. He lives in a market town in the East Midlands. Tim voted to leave the EU. Interview November 2020.
i feel ashamed
I think it has heightened the north/south divide and possibly, yeah, rich and poor, the haves and the have nots. Yeah. I do think that Brexit combined with the pandemic has just made for a total…totally disastrous situation. I don’t, I honestly…I feel just doom and gloom for the future really. I can’t feel a lot of optimism […] I feel ashamed that we…that we’re in the position that we’re in, which is exactly what I felt about Brexit. Yeah, I feel we’re in a country that has not handled it well.
Janice is a white British woman in her 60s, who lives in a small town situated within rural East Midlands. She voted to remain in the EU.
Interview December 2020.