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Brexit event horizon approaching
Nov. 17th, 2018 06:20 pmFrom the start I have thought of Brexit as a massive black hole accelerating towards us, with the increasing threat of engulfing everything that we hold dear and pitching us into a totally unknown universe. Now that we are skirting the event horizon, at almost the last possible moment, there seems some possibility of successfully moving away into somewhere normal. Possible yes, but is it realistic?
The trouble is that just about everything that seemed to be normal has changed since the referendum campaign began. The populists and the far right have got a lot more popular and even further to the right. The unpleasant people in the UK who used to keep most of their unpleasant thoughts to themselves now think they have a licence to attack everyone with whom they disagree: and these attacks often go beyond the verbal into the physical. Just about everyone I have met outside Britain in the last 3 years thinks that Britain has gone collectively insane, which is not a good position from which to adapt either to Rees-Mogg's neo-liberal nirvana or to an EU that has effectively been moving ahead without us.
A few years ago, when I represented UK Local Government on the EU Committee of the Regions (the advisory body that represents local and regional government to the EU institutions), Britain had a solid and largely positive reputation with the rest of the EU. Brits were good at organising their votes and negotiating with other countries and groupings for what they wanted to achieve: we were almost always on the winning side. Brits brought in their experience of managing meetings and discussions e.g. challenging the southern European practice that a speaker's importance is measured by the length of his speech! With rare exceptions, the Brits who got involved in EU activity were as keen on development and progress as anyone else in the EU and the British contribution was valued and trusted. That reputation has been comprehensively trashed thanks to our present government. It will take a lot of work to rebuild that trust, whether inside or outside the EU.
Of course, other member states engage with the EU in their own particular ways: it is not true that everyone else is passionately involved, although some are more so than others. I do think that Britain has specialised in ignoring the EU - except as a useful scapegoat - and has comprehensively failed to inform people about what we have gained from membership, and how and in what way regions, localities and particular industries have benefitted from EU funding. It would not have been difficult to mobilise people to take part in the consultations about proposed EU policies or to keep track of the work that the EU is doing e.g. in its massive programme of aid throughout the world. But it didn't happen, so nobody knows, and the political parties here rarely include anything in their leaflets or on their websites that would encourage Brits to get better informed.
As far as I can see, whether we get sucked into the black hole or spat out at the last moment, life here is going to be very different in future. Time to prepare, n'est-ce pas?
The trouble is that just about everything that seemed to be normal has changed since the referendum campaign began. The populists and the far right have got a lot more popular and even further to the right. The unpleasant people in the UK who used to keep most of their unpleasant thoughts to themselves now think they have a licence to attack everyone with whom they disagree: and these attacks often go beyond the verbal into the physical. Just about everyone I have met outside Britain in the last 3 years thinks that Britain has gone collectively insane, which is not a good position from which to adapt either to Rees-Mogg's neo-liberal nirvana or to an EU that has effectively been moving ahead without us.
A few years ago, when I represented UK Local Government on the EU Committee of the Regions (the advisory body that represents local and regional government to the EU institutions), Britain had a solid and largely positive reputation with the rest of the EU. Brits were good at organising their votes and negotiating with other countries and groupings for what they wanted to achieve: we were almost always on the winning side. Brits brought in their experience of managing meetings and discussions e.g. challenging the southern European practice that a speaker's importance is measured by the length of his speech! With rare exceptions, the Brits who got involved in EU activity were as keen on development and progress as anyone else in the EU and the British contribution was valued and trusted. That reputation has been comprehensively trashed thanks to our present government. It will take a lot of work to rebuild that trust, whether inside or outside the EU.
Of course, other member states engage with the EU in their own particular ways: it is not true that everyone else is passionately involved, although some are more so than others. I do think that Britain has specialised in ignoring the EU - except as a useful scapegoat - and has comprehensively failed to inform people about what we have gained from membership, and how and in what way regions, localities and particular industries have benefitted from EU funding. It would not have been difficult to mobilise people to take part in the consultations about proposed EU policies or to keep track of the work that the EU is doing e.g. in its massive programme of aid throughout the world. But it didn't happen, so nobody knows, and the political parties here rarely include anything in their leaflets or on their websites that would encourage Brits to get better informed.
As far as I can see, whether we get sucked into the black hole or spat out at the last moment, life here is going to be very different in future. Time to prepare, n'est-ce pas?
