In a truly tragic situation where Italy’s industrial and agricultural powerhouse has been smothered by floodwater and rapidly concretising mud I admire the way the other members of the union, of which Italy forms part and was one of the six original founding members, are clubbing together to help this beautiful country which had been my main home for almost twenty years.
Meanwhile the UK media, and particularly the BBC, avoid talking about what’s happened in Emilia-Romagna and prefer to concentrate on what someone may find in a remote Portuguese reservoir.
It’s clear to most politically aware people that there are many tangible Brexit benefits to be had. The problem for the United Kingdom, however, is that these benefits are all for member states of the EU with none for Brexitania!
The majority of the EU are very glad that a truculent and demanding nation has left it. No more extra negotiations to deal with all those niggly amendments that Britain wanted, for instance. More than that, however, are the great economic advantages that Brexit is giving to the EU. Industries and commerce are massively moving to the European mainland to avoid the complex bureaucracy that the UK’s divorce has involved, especially with regard to imports and exports. Ever more commerce and finance are transferring across the Channel and already Frankfurt and Amsterdam have overtaken the City of London as a major financial hub.
Regarding the initial issue of why brexit happened – uncontrolled immigration, – the fact is that the number of those entering the UK (even illegally) is higher than it ever had been. At least when the UK was part of the EU the majority of immigrants came from countries with a European cultural and historical tradition well-connected with the UK. Indeed during WW2 London hosted European governments exiled because of the Nazi invasion. Racists might also like to note that these immigrants were white and of Christian upbringing.
Now UK rules for immigrant control have gone by the wayside due to labour shortages in so many of its sectors, especially farming. (PS If anyone continues to think Brexit is the best thing to have happened to the UK since Wonderloaf bakeries invented sliced bread just get up early enough to listen to BBC Radio One’s farming programme – perhaps containing the most persuasive evidence to condemn brexitism).
The new waves of immigrants may lack the European background of their predecessors but at least they speak English having come from those parts of the world which a formerly imperialist nation exploited to the last manacle on a slave’s legs. For of course, too many brexiteers could no longer judge a person using the colour of their skin since recent laws would now punish them so they picked on the next best thing which is whether they could speak English or not…
And that’s the crux of the matter. The UK has never considered itself part of Europe. That clichéd news headline ‘fog envelops the English channel: the continent cut off from Britain still holds true among many anglo-saxons. Meanwhile all I can see is that the EU will think twice – or even three times – about allowing rejoining negotiations with the Brexit nation if a more enlightened government should occupy Westminster.
Unless the UK can create a miracle by forging trade deals as comprehensive as it used to have when it was a member of the world’s largest trade community, it will sadly sink into further oblivion and destitution and become ever more incapable of ‘taking back control ‘ of its rightful destiny as an an essential part of the European continent.
