From Russia With Love: Brexit

Context

I’ll start by saying I’m a Remainer. I have been all my adult life. When I moved back to England in 1977 questions of Europe, the Common Market, and the UK’s role in it were rife. Eurosceptics abounded. Things haven’t changed all that much in the last 40 years.

It was as clear to me then as it is now: the UK is far better off inside the EU than outside of it. Membership has brought the kinds of economic benefits that workers in the 1960s only dreamt about. As a country, the UK is richer, stronger, and more active on the global stage than it would be any other way. Besides, if the availability of espresso is a gauge, membership in the EU has shaped two generations of Brits into (quirky) Europeans.

Atavistic Fantasies

Any fan of the BBC might be forgiven for thinking that the UK is still fighting the Second World War. The UK’s nostalgia for the 1930s and ‘40s is manifest in its endless repetition of war-themed dramas, quaint detective shows, and class-war soap operas.

I’ve no doubt that spoon-feeding such pablum corrupts the thinking of many Eurosceptics; helping them believe the sun still never sets on the empire and the wogs begin at Calais. It doesn’t, and they’re racist.

The reality is, it is jobs that begin at Calais. If only the execrable Jacob Rees-Mogg and that pillock Boris Johnson had paid more attention to the UK’s ambassador in chief, James Bond, perhaps they wouldn’t have tried so hard to wreck the economy. Then again, if you’ve been educated at Eton and Oxford, it is likely your empathy for the working man is held at arm’s length – at best.

Hands up, Mister Bond!

William Cross writing in the New Statesman pointed out: “Bond pandered to Britain’s inflated and increasingly insecure self-image, flattering us with the fantasy that Britannia could still punch above her weight.”

Leavers seem to believe that turning its back on its proximal trading partners will restore an empire it spent the last century dismantling. That the UK’s navy will once again rule the seas. It won’t. Better then to work inside a system like the EU and change it, than whine about it from outside.

No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!

In ‘From Russia With Love’, the criminal syndicate Spectre understood the British very well:

Having fallen into a trap of their own making, the only path the Conservatives have taken with Brexit is to damn the torpedoes, damn the better interests of the country, and run the good ship Britannia full speed towards the rocks. Going against the results of the referendum, they bleat, will corrupt democracy! Brexit means Brexit! To which I say, horsepucky!

David Cameron, as Prime Minister, called for the referendum in June 2016. Then, as soon as the vote to leave the EU passed, he quit.

Succeeding him, Theresa May, despite her poor change management process, went on to negotiate a not-so-awful agreement with Europe that might save the UK from financial ruin. Sadly, her poor change management process meant no one else was on board with her plan and it was doomed even before it was put to a Parliamentary vote.

Yet Cameron should never have painted the UK into the corner it’s now in. Instead of resigning he should have had the cajones to say,

“Yes, 52% of voters called for Brexit. That is a call to action, but it’s not a mandate to jeopardise the UK’s financial future.

Severing our financial and business arrangements with the EU after 40 years of integration will not be easy, and with so many jobs at stake we will not take such challenges lightly. Neither will we ignore the will of our electorate.

We have heard you. We want to better understand why you voted to leave, and once we do, we will actively address those issues. Together we shall make the UK a stronger country and stronger trading partner. Yada-yada.”

After a couple of years of such guff, many of the voter’s issues could have been addressed, while the key economic underpinnings of the country would be preserved. Sadly, such an approach takes leadership, something that’s in miserably short supply these days.

The Russian Connection

Little has changed in Russian foreign policy since the start of the Cold War. There’s nothing the Russians want more than discord and disharmony in the west. Brexit surely fires up Vladimir Putin’s little cockles.

It’s as though the Brexit campaign was ripped wholesale from the KGB’s European playbook. Sidelining a key player in the EU and NATO’s alliance is nothing short of a gift for Russia’s geopolitical ambitions. Particularly since all it took was a little augmentative meddling in social media.

But What About Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition?

He’s a richard. The sooner he goes the better. The Labor Party’s constituents broadly oppose Brexit. Corbyn is a long time Eurosceptic and a liability to the party. The sooner he goes the better.

Bridge on the River Why?

As a Remainer I keep hoping that Theresa May will wake up one morning with a horrified look of realisation on her face and ask herself, “What have I done?” Staggering from her bed, she will reach for the phone and make the call that presses the plunger and blows up the whole Brexit construct.

I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Perhaps common sense will overwhelm Parliament and it will vote against a no-deal Brexit, ask for an extension, and come to its senses. Perhaps. Pink Floyd, the rock band, once flew a pig over Battersea Power Station. Thus, pigs have flown in London. Might they do so again for Brexit? Possibly.

And…?

We will be in the UK in early summer, wind and waves willing. At that time Brexit, as it is currently writ, will have come galumphing out of the woods. It is then the British political landscape will be transformed as the country’s voters painfully realize that decisions have consequences. Strap in and hold on!