I don’t want to bore non-Brits with too many comments on Brexit, existential though it is. But I would like to tell a short story.
My wife and I were recently walking round an ancient Greek temple in Sicily when a man, who I had never seen before in my life, approached me, and, with his face six inches from mine, told me he was French and from Paris. He said to me, quite fiercely:
“I hope you did not vote for Brexit!
To which I replied, “Do you think I look like the sort of person who would vote for Brexit?”. He looked a bit disconcerted. I continued without a pause for thought:
”Brexit, Monsieur, is the worst disaster to have occurred to Britain since 1066, when you guys sent over the Normans to conquer us, introducing your feudal system into the British Isles, by the way”.
What could he reply?
What a brilliant reply. I endorse that wholeheartedly.
Hope you enjoyed Sicily! It’s a beautiful place.
Every European I’ve met, whether in the UK or abroad, views our country’s behaviour with a combination of bewilderment and exasperation. It’s becoming more embarrassing by the day.
Having said that, I’m increasingly of the view that the incompetence and wishful thinking of the Britain’s Brexiteers and the Conservative Party will result in Britain not leaving at all. By insisting on the purest Brexit possible and declining to compromise, Brexiteers have energised an increasingly militant pro-EU grassroots movement. In effect, they have sown the seeds of their own destruction.
Excellent comment! I passionately hope you are right and that this whole dismal episode will end with Britain staying in the EU.
An old friend of mine commented that he thought the EU would collapse and that leaving now would avoid the mess of collapse. Actually, leaving now helps to ensure collapse, if anything.. We have been appallingly served by the Press and the governing party, which deserves to be out of power for a generation or until it can advocate policies that benefit the whole population rather than just big business and their friends. They have no constructive ideas, only destructive ones, are victims of their own ideology of lies and misrepresentation ( I include the right- wing Press in this. It has shamelessly lied to the public, straight bananas being the tip of the iceberg). . If Boris becomes Prime Minister it could well be that decades of wilderness will be their well- deserved fate. We need a conservative party, just not this one.
I omitted to say that the current Labour leadership is also a busted flush and as bad as the Tories in a different way. Where are the real leaders? History sometimes indicates that someone, somewhere will emerge in this crisis. However, we have to go through agony until we find her or him.