‘EI’m sorry, sir, but why are you wearing poppies? The anniversary is on Thursday. The speaker is a Spanish gentleman. Scene: Saturday 13th of this month, in the breakfast room of a hotel in Valladolid, one hour away by train northwest of Madrid. I was struggling on the toaster. You know when a person arrives. What is it like in the buffet breakfast room.
I replied that I kept wearing poppies until the Remembrance Day Sunday, when there was a traditional monument parade in London. “Ah,” he said. “Please forgive me, but why does your country vote like this?”
It turned out that my interlocutor was a professor of history at the University of Madrid. He began to talk about the tragedy of Brexit and its terrible impact on Britain’s relations with those countries that Boris Johnson called — after his Brexitists caused all the economic and diplomatic massacres — as “Our European Partner”.
Visiting Spain almost two years after leaving the European continent is almost an ecstatic experience. Europe! A good Spanish city with a long history, and what’s worse is that it’s relatively unknown-perhaps except for its football team-to the British who support the Brexit coast.It’s great to revisit the EU where we are a part of it A more enlightened leader of the Conservative Party than the current showers.
Yes, it is so frustrating to visit our daughter who teaches English in Valladolid Brexit bureaucracy. This is on top of the boring (if fully understandable) paper, computer and smartphone work necessary for Covid preventive measures. But what is gratifying is that unlike Johnson’s England, masks are worn everywhere: this must have some connection with the low casualty rate of Spain’s new crown pneumonia.
I just read on Interview New Europe, The great European Kenneth Clarke observed that under Johnson’s leadership, the damage caused by Brexit is no longer confused with the impact of Covid, “We are now dangerously approaching the warning from the former Prime Minister, Lord Hailsham. Our’popular dictatorship’ was about half a century ago.”
But there is hope. Potential dictators are being discovered.I’ve been rereading Anthony Powell’s Dancing with the music of time. There is a great paragraph: “However, like most untrustworthy people, Uncle Giles has a gift that can make many people he meets confident. Even those who have known him for many years, Sometimes you find it difficult to estimate how long he can last with his lack of reliability-or even complete incompetence-on business issues.” Does this remind you of anyone?
The good news is that not only his parliamentary colleagues and the blinded “red wall” voters started yelling at Johnson: It looks like the opposition leader Sir Kil Starmer finally, in the spirit of his great predecessor Harold Found Wilson, this kind of ridicule is a good tool for debate.
Among those appointed by Johnson, of course it is his so-called “negotiator” David Frost to be ridiculed. Unfortunately, Starmer could not find him directly because Johnson pushed Frost to the House of Lords. But I think Lord Adonis is very good at him there. Frost put it on record before the referendum, pointing out that joining the customs union and the single market has considerable advantages, and then he accounted for 8% of GDP, which is a per capita annual income of 1,500 pounds.
He should stick to his position and not sell his soul to the Brexit demon. This brings us back to Stammer. He was right to oppose Brexit, and of course he should stick to his position. The disaster of Brexit is an open goal for the opposition. It is not good to support a policy of “making Brexit work”.The fact is that Brexit does not work And can’t work.
Although Brexit has brought all kinds of excitement to our partners in Europe, they realize that it is wise for us to prepare for the return, even though our tail is tucked between our legs. European countries know that they benefit from British membership—especially the single market that Britain championed before it lost its sanity.
In his new book Europe beyond the euroCharles Enoch of St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University quoted Emmanuel Macron as saying: “In a few years, the United Kingdom will find its place in the EU if it wants to” — a “renewed focus” Compromise values and effective markets”.
At the same time, who can tell me, is there any precedent for this level of national self-harm?
