EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

I agree. There's no doubt that inequality in the UK is worse than over there, and that much of the problem is not caused by the EU. There's also this strange phenomenon that the UK 'aristocracy' (not really, as the term falsely implies, government by the 'best') has never been largely abolished as it was in Germany in 1918-1919 (enough of it survived to still cause problems, but its power was much diminished). That the same people/families, e.g. the owners of the Grand Estates in London, have been collecting rent on the same land for centuries, that land ownership is still so heavily concentrated as a consequence of the Enclosures, the first 'Industrial Revolution', etc. are things that are just not present to the same degree over there. The UK's education system, the media, and other factors are consequences of that.

'If this does not reflect your views, you must understand
That those who own this country also own this land'
(Billy Bragg, 'It Says Here')

Perhaps, ironically, the UK could be the only or one of the few countries in which the recent influence of the EU has been more benign. I don't know if that's really the case, but if it were, it being the one of all countries that voted 'leave' would be terrible.

The German sense of betrayal is largely due to a gradual abandonment of the post-war settlement of 'social market democracy', which was a compromise between socialism and market-driven forces and was relatively stable (although obviously also heavily criticised) for decades. Kohl especially started to dismantle it, and then he rushed the country into the annexation of East Germany, again without any proper preparation, claiming that the time window for doing so was very short, as the Soviet Union would be back in condition to prevent reunification again a few years after that. This led to the near-complete destruction of the East German economy when it should have been given more time to get on some more equal footing with the West German economy while it still had its traditional markets in the east, and terrible social devastation, with some areas having 40% unemployment for more than a decade. This is one of the main factors that has fuelled the rise of far-right activities in East Germany, too. Anyway, there's so much to be said about all that. I expect that most other European countries have similar stories to tell.