united Kingdom – What Now?

He did it. He won by a landslide. The papers are full of analysis and predictions. What will he be like, now that he’s got that all-enabling majority? Where is Britain going? What about Scotland? Ireland? united Kingdom?

In all of this, we should not forget the underlying facts: Britain is where it is because of a nationalist and xenophobic drive, led by Nigel Farage and his enablers, succumbed to by a weak Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron, who produced a half-baked referendum, followed by Theresa May and a Tory party, the deceitful message of which it was that 51.5% of the vote reflects “the will of the people”, a notion that turned into a mantra of the political class. All this was nurtured by a Brexit pushing populist press. Then there is the interesting question of foreign meddling (Putin?) and the personal interest and whims of a few mega-rich individuals who finance such campaigns.

The deed is done. Will it be good for Britain? Nationalism and Xenophobia are bad. Full stop. They go hand-in-hand with racism and antisemitism. And they have all been given a free run. From this point of view, the whole process has been extremely bad for Britain.

Will it be good for Britain’s economy, for people’s standard of living, for the quality of their lives? I think not. Time will tell.

What is it be: Leave the country? Build a bunker and store food and medicine? Pray? Meditate? It’s the time of the year and it will probably just end up with drink and be merry.

Schadenfreude

The German term Schadenfreude is also in use in English. I confess to succumbing to this base instinct with regard to the price, which many Brits will pay for their stupid, arrogant, anti-foreign, decision to leave the EU. Because of the falling Pound, all those Brits who, each year, go for their two-week beach holiday in Spain, Portugal or Greece – will pay more for this summer’s holiday. Serves them right. The rate was €1.40 per Pound in 2015, €1.28 on Referendum Day in 2016 and is now €1.12. Moreover, once the UK is out of the EU, British mobile phones will no longer benefit from roaming charge free use of their phones.  

Many will not be able to afford holidays at all, as already many jobs have been lost, due to companies and European organisations leaving Britain. Instead, the lower classes can watch the mega rich, who funded the deceitful Brexit campaign, get richer. Farage and Johnson, the leaders of the Brexit push, actually personally benefit. Last year alone, Farage earned £400,000 from media appearances. And Boris Johnson, is being paid £275,000 per annum for writing a weekly column in the British Daily Telegraph. The billionaire offshore Barclay brothers, who own the Telegraph, will have their reasons for paying this rather high rate for Johnson’s musings. The question must be asked, what is Johnson really being paid for?

River of Blood again?

In 1968, Enoch Powell, a senior British politician, on the very right wing of the Conservative Party, quoted from Sybil’s prophecy in Virgil’s Aeneid, "wars, terrible wars, / and the Tiber foaming with much blood", in his anti-immigration speech, the infamous “River of Blood” speech, in which Powell warned: “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’.”

Whether Powell did or did not want blood to flow is almost beside the point. He was not stupid and he will have known that his supporters would act, when their leader suggests blood.

I was reminded of that vile man, after hearing Nigel Farage’s reaction to the ruling, a couple of weeks ago, of the British High Court that the prime minister was required to get Parliament’s approval before it triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, notifying the EU that Britain is getting out.

Farage, a leader of the UKIP party, according to the Daily Telegraph, intends to lead a 100,000 strong march to the Supreme Court on the day it will be hearing the appeal on the High Court’s ruling.  Farage said “I worry that a betrayal may be near at hand… I now fear that every attempt will be made to block or delay the triggering of Article 50. If this is so, they have no idea of the level of public anger they will provoke.”

Is this incitement that I am hearing?