“I’ve yet to see any of the upside of Brexit”

Transcript: “I’ve yet to see any of the upside of Brexit”

Mae: Do you have any opinions you’d like to share on Brexit? 

Adam: Yes, I have many, but I have to kind of prefaceetw. im Vorfeld kommentierenpreface them by saying that, you know, obviously I am horribly, catastrophically biasedvoreingenommenbiased. I left England when I was 24, you know, with a suitcase and because someone had sent me an email, you know, and I moved to Leipzig because of that email, which sounds ridiculous. And it was ridiculous, but it was so easy to just do that then, you know, because we had free movement. I had my EU passport, which is a kind of be-born-in-one, get-27-countries-for-free, which is just an incredible, amazing opportunity that I took advantage of. And so, and I feel like that’s the kind of moment where my adult life began and where everything that’s been great in my life began with that opportunity that I got to do that. And, so, when my countrymen and women kind of voted to take that away from – and it’s mostly the younger generations who use that privilege – when they voted to just take that away from the kind of generations behind me, that, of course, made me, well, it made me absolutely furiouswütendfurious. Because I thought, OK, if we’re going to take that away, right, OK, maybe there are credibleglaubhaftcredible reasons why we should do that. You know, like what? Tell me what the advantages are of us doing that. And I’m very open to them having these big, big advantages of Brexit, but I’ve been waiting a long time and it feels like, you know, now, nine, ten years later, I’ve yet to see any of the economic, social or kind of cultural upsideVorteil, positive Seiteupside of Brexit. And so, then I’m just left with the kind of furyWutfury that I feel for now the younger people who won’t get that opportunity that I got. 

Mae: And you’re living in Berlin. Do you now have an EU passport once again? 

Adam: I am extremely lucky and so yes, I had been here long enough that when Brexit happened, I could then apply for German citizenship, which I now have. So, now I have two passports and I have my buy-one-get-27-for-free deal again.