Indo-Asian News Service
London, June 23: Britons braved pouring rain and waded through deep water to reach polling stations to vote on whether UK should remain in the European Union. Twitter was flooded with comments on the Remain or Leave vote that is being watched with bated breath the world over. British Scholar @britishscholar tweeted, reflecting on the gloomy weather and the crucial vote. “Brooding skies over @KingsCollegeLon on a critical day in British and world history. #Brexit”
@baldeguy56 tweeted in favour of an exit vote: “I don’t ask much from my followers, but as Patriots that are lovers of freedom & liberty, please pray for the Freedom of Britain Thursday.” Zoomin Moomin, tweeted in favour of Remain in a rhyming vote: “Thursday’s the day Great Britain/ To go a vote IN in this election/ To show that #Brexit bus/ We’ll not let them FEXIT UP for all of us! #Remain”
Chilled Bunny, in a philosophical note, posted: “#Brexit – how many people voting Thursday have a clue as to any issues never mind the overall picture of the State in a Union? Democracy eh?”
Nico Yearwood @neeksman, in a similar vein, tweeted: “99% of the people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about when it comes to this referendum. #Brexit” “Nigel Mitchell tweeted: “We all know #Brexit is possibly good for the UK and bad for the world. Wondering what we will wake up to.”
Tonusree Basu, a 31-year old Indian public policy professional living in London, was among those who braved the heavy rain to vote. According to Basu, there was a good turnout at her polling station as it opened at 7 am, despite the heavy rain.
She described some of conversations she had with passersby, when campaigning for the Remain in the run up to the voting.
“The mood on the street is rather mixed – it could go either way. It surprised me to see how many people were keenly reading the leaflet and clearly wanted more information to make an informed choice. People from all walks of life – race, gender, age, and professional background – enthusiastically came up to me for “I’m In” stickers.
“But then there were others – a young man who crumpled the leaflet and threw it at me, yet another who expressed disdain at me for being an Indian who supported Remain, rather than leave so we could “throw out the ‘bad immigrants'” who take away our jobs. The latter gentleman didn’t quite have an answer when I suggested that the jobs might go out of the door with the EU, if UK chose to leave,” Basu said. “Vote to remain people of Britain, you can still queue in the EU, don’t get left out in the rain #Brexit,” John Fagan tweeted. Meanwhile, Britain’s 1.2 million strong Indian-origin voters, the biggest ethnic majority-group in the country, voted in large numbers Thursday amid indications that a majority of them may vote against Brexit .
