The profound and relevant insight in the title is from American poet, Robinson Jeffers (1887 – 1962). Does this explain one current issue; the inability of a section of UK voters to see and hear that our self-harming Brexit vote continues to bleed our economy and to warp our society? All reliable economic institutions including the OBR, the Governments own financial research group, agree that Brexit has reduced UK economic strength by a minimum of four per cent of GDP – some put this at six per cent.
Many small and medium-sized businesses have stopped attempting to export to the EU; ditto our farmers. The latter will also soon face the Brexit-provoked disruption of Liz Truss’ harmful agricultural deal with Australia. 40 per cent of our universities are facing financial collapse, in part due to the absence of EU students. By following Johnson’s outrageous Brexit structure, we chose to make our qualifications count for nothing in the EU and to make our citizens obliged, shortly, to present finger print and perhaps facial recognition in order to holiday in the EU. The wrecking ball truth about Brexit is recognised by the 62 per cent of British voters (YouGov figures), who now say that it was a failure (as opposed to the 12 per cent who say that it was a success).
That this Alice in Wonderland Brexit is a topic that apparently cannot be publicly analysed by governments, Tory or Labour, shocks many of us. Why is it that the 55 per cent of Brits who know we should never have left are unable to get their MPs to demand that the government plays the adult role and initiates an open debate on how we went wrong at the Referendum? For how long do we carry this self- inflicted cancer? Why does the 31 per cent who think that leaving was correct [if not exactly a success!] still dictate that their self-deluding minority view can censor what can and can’t be debated?
This childish situation could be exploded by the arrival of Trump. He is “the tiger on the road”. Might his unleashing of an even greater “sea of madness” than Brexit bring our nation to its senses?
His plan, to “strengthen” the US economy by starting a trade war with, perhaps, all other important nations (!) could be the medicine that causes us to clearly recognise the economic, political and defence advantages that will come from associating closely with Europe.
To continue to reject the European cure and to base our international relations on adulation of Trump ( “the most resilient and brave person that I know”, says N. Farage) is to lock ourselves to the tiger. Mr. F, who has already been at least four times to see his buddy since our July election, piles on the sycophancy, saying that “they put him through the courts”. This is to imply that Trump’s crimes (all recognised by different parts of the US legal system) were somehow manipulated by “them“, i.e. Trump’s ‘enemies’. Mr. F also insists that we should tie ourselves to Trump “for intelligence sharing, defence, investment and trade”. How on earth could this be helpful to our future?
This would entail the UK government working with the bizarre choices for Trump’s administration; the proposed Director of National Intelligence has no experience of working in intelligence [and was described on Russian TV as ‘our agent or our girlfriend’! Ed] and the proposed Defence Chief seems to have only one qualification – that he is handsome. [and a far-right, Fox News presenter! Ed]
[Or as Jack E Smith expressed it on BlueSky:
Update: His health guy doesn’t believe in medical science. His law guy is a sex trafficker. His intelligence gal is a Russian asset. You’re all caught up.] Ed
To trust that the President-elect’s trade and investment policies will replace the veins and arteries that connected us to Europe is to join Alice again in a theatre of shadows and lies. Is Mr. F’s view that Trump is our anchor based purely on the latter’s praise of Farage as “one of the most powerful men in Europe” and the equally dubious accolade that “he’s been my friend….although I don’t know why”!
Both men pride themselves on being “disruptors”. Mr. Farage, as arguably the most famous face leading Brexit, has certainly disrupted our mainly constructive relationship with the EU, the largest trading bloc in the world. We must somehow prevent him from conjuring our intelligence into following him into Trump worship.
Jeremy Hall
Crockernwell,
Exeter.