THE LAUGHING STOCK OF EUROPE
Paula Kirby
June 17 at 11:21pm ·
This article in a Swiss newspaper today is so ruthlessly
clear-sighted in its assessment of just how screwed we are that I just had to
translate it for the non-German speakers. Hold on to your hats:
THE LAUGHING STOCK OF EUROPE
[Translation by Paula Kirby]
If it weren't so serious, the situation in Great Britain
would almost be comical. The country is being governed by a talking robot,
nicknamed the Maybot, that somehow managed to visit the burned-out tower block
in the west of London without speaking to a single survivor or voluntary
helper. Negotiations for the country’s exit from the EU are due to begin on
Monday, but no one has even a hint of a plan. The government is dependent on a
small party that provides a cozy home for climate change deniers and
creationists. Boris Johnson is Foreign Secretary. What in the world has
happened to this country?
Two years ago David Cameron emerged from the parliamentary
election as the shining victor. He had secured an absolute majority, and as a
result it looked as if the career of this cheerful lightweight was headed for
surprisingly dizzy heights. The economy was growing faster than in any other
industrialised country in the world. Scottish independence and, with it, the
break-up of the United Kingdom had been averted. For the first time since 1992,
there was a Conservative majority in the House of Commons. Great Britain saw
itself as a universally respected actor on the international stage. This was
the starting point.
In order to get from this comfortable position to the chaos
of the present in the shortest possible time, two things were necessary: first,
the Conservative right wingers’ obsessive hatred of the EU, and second,
Cameron’s irresponsibility in putting the whole future of the country on the
line with his referendum, just to satisfy a few fanatics in his party. It is
becoming ever clearer just how extraordinarily bad a decision that was. The
fact that Great Britain has become the laughing stock of Europe is directly
linked to its vote for Brexit.
The ones who will suffer most will be the British people,
who were lied to by the Brexit campaign during the referendum and betrayed and
treated like idiots by elements of their press. The shamelessness still knows
no bounds: the Daily Express has asked in all seriousness whether the inferno
in the tower block was due to the cladding having been designed to meet EU
standards. It is a simple matter to discover that the answer to this question
is No, but by failing to check it, the newspaper has planted the suspicion that
the EU might be to blame for this too. As an aside: a country in which parts of
the press are so demonstrably uninterested in truth and exploit a disaster like
the fire in Grenfell Tower for their own tasteless ends has a very serious
problem.
Already prices are rising in the shops, already inflation is
on the up. Investors are holding back. Economic growth has slowed. And that’s
before the Brexit negotiations have even begun. With her unnecessary general
election, Prime Minister Theresa May has already squandered an eighth of the
time available for them. How on earth an undertaking as complex as Brexit is
supposed to be agreed in the time remaining is a mystery.
Great Britain will end up leaving its most important trading
partner and will be left weaker in every respect. It would make economic sense
to stay in the single market and the customs union, but that would mean being
subject to regulations over which Britain no longer had any say. It would be
better to have stayed in the EU in the first place. So the government now needs
to develop a plan that is both politically acceptable and brings the fewest
possible economic disadvantages. It’s a question of damage limitation, nothing
more; yet even now there are still politicians strutting around Westminster
smugly trumpeting that it will be the EU that comes off worst if it doesn’t toe
the line.
The EU is going to be dealing with a government that has no
idea what kind of Brexit it wants, led by an unrealistic politician whose days
are numbered; and a party in which old trenches are being opened up again:
moderate Tories are currently hoping to be able to bring about a softer exit
after all, but the hardliners in the party – among them more than a few
pigheadedly obstinate ideologues – are already threatening rebellion. An epic
battle lies ahead, and it will paralyse the government.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said that he now
expects the Brits to finally set out their position clearly, since he cannot
negotiate with himself. The irony of this statement is that it would actually
be in Britain’s best interests if he did just that. At least that way they’d
have one representative on their side who grasps the scale of the task and is
actually capable of securing a deal that will be fair to both sides. The Brits
do not have a single negotiator of this stature in their ranks. And quite apart
from the Brexit terms, both the debate and the referendum have proven to be
toxic in ways that are now making themselves felt.
British society is now more divided than at any time since
the English civil war in the 17th century, a fact that was demonstrated anew in
the general election, in which a good 80% of the votes were cast for the two
largest parties. Neither of these parties was offering a centrist programme:
the election was a choice between the hard right and the hard left. The political
centre has been abandoned, and that is never a good sign. In a country like
Great Britain, that for so long had a reputation for pragmatism and
rationality, it is grounds for real concern. The situation is getting decidedly
out of hand.
After the loss of its empire, the United Kingdom sought a
new place in the world. It finally found it, as a strong, awkward and
influential part of a larger union: the EU. Now it has given up this place
quite needlessly. The consequence, as is now becoming clear, is a veritable
identity crisis from which it will take the country a very long time to
recover.
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