Church of England vicar says Brexit vote is not just a cry of ‘incoherent rage’
by John Bingham, Telegraph:
A vicar has publicly challenged the Church of England hierarchy over the EU referendum by warning against dismissing the vote to leave as just a cry of “incoherent rage” by disadvantaged communities.
The Rev Graeme Buttery, of St Oswald’s Church, Hartlepool, said people in the town, who voted heavily to leave, felt they were being listened to for the first time in more than 40 years in the vote last month.
Speaking at the Church’s General Synod in York, Fr Buttery said it “beggars belief” that some people seemed surprised that people in towns like Hartlepool had voted as they did.
He said that despite high levels of European investment locally, the era since the UK first joined what became the EU had seen the collapse of every key industry in the area with, at best, transient jobs taking their place.
[…] “Well, since we joined the European Union the shipyards have sunk, the coalmines have collapsed, the steel works have rusted and the chemical works have dissolved.
“The jobs that came were lasses’ jobs.
“And even they didn’t last because three or four years ago the phone calling company that had set up in Hartlepool decided to downsize and move to India, Hartlepool lost 600 jobs in one day.
“In a community of 95,000 that is not clever and no number of grants from the European Union can make that right anywhere near quickly.
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