15 Lisa Brexit

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Panaji: Brexit is a big mistake, Lord Karan Bilimoria, the first Zoriastrian to sit in the House of Lords said, adding that globalization has lifted billions of people out of poverty. “The worst part about it (Brexit) is the old people voted to leave while the young people, almost 100 percent in some instances voted to remain. And whose future is it? It’s the youth’s future,” Bilimoria said in Panaji on Thursday.

Two years ago when UK voted to leave the European Union, 16 and 17 year olds who were too young to vote are today old enough to vote but don’t have a say in their future. “By the time we come to March 2019, there will be more youngsters who didn’t have a chance to vote,” the deputy lieutenant of Greater London who was born in Hyderabad, said while speaking at the 11th D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas.

People he says were “misled” by the referendum where the 52-48 vote was a “very narrow victory”. “There should have been a supermajority of at least 2/3rd. That was a mistake. And now we’re being forced into this Brexit but more and more people are realizing that the best thing for Britain actually would be for Britain to remain in the EU,” said Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer.

Without people from the EU who live and work in the UK there would be a labour shortage because UK has only 4.3 percent unemployment. With around 130000 people from the EU working in the national health service and care sector alone, Brexit would lead to its collapse, he said. “The young on the whole don’t even use national health service much. They contribute six times more than they take out of the state of the UK,” he said, adding that EU citizens in the UK constitute less than five percent of the population.

“As long as immigrants make a contribution to the country, we should welcome them,” he said in response to a question on whether immigrants including those from Goa who settle in the UK as Portuguese citizens, are a drain on public services. Country liquor, he opined should be banned in India. “I think it’s awful. And I think if one is going to drink always drink sensibly and responsibly and in moderation,” said Bilimoria the nephew of Kershap Tehmurasp Satarawala, who served as the Lt Governor of Goa between February 1983 and July 1984.