Britannia reborn
While pretty much every other UK paper has the latest disgusting details from the Epstein files, the Daily Express is calling in banner headlines for Brexit to be finally done properly and that Labour be stopped from dragging the UK back into the EU. As if.
The Express has some handy quotes from Johnson, Badenoch and, of course, Farage on how we would all be much better off if we destroyed all links with the EU. Johnson again claims that his complete and devastating response to covid was better than everyone else’s because of Brexit.
You might think he would want to avoid the covid issue, what with the official investigation already highlighting his laziness, arrogance, delays, incompetence, feral advisors, the corruption of PPE supplies and the lost billions thrown at business and never recovered. But no it was a Brexit triumph apparently.
I prefer to think it as a Brexit metaphor, we thought and still think we are better than the others because Britain is top dog and this is a good thing. I am afraid much of Brexit was founded on the same sad thinking: we are special, we are the envy of the world, we still count, we have special friends and relationships, we might not be a world power but we are important etc.
A recent book by Antony Beevor on Arnhem claims this dangerous fantasy about us no longer being a world power but “punching above our weight” come from 1944 and Churchill’s refusal to admit we were in the second division below the USSR and the USA.
Well now we are in the third division far, far below China too, which is why Sir Kier has been there to try to improve relations, we have no choice. A pragmatic approach and one that angers the right because they fail to admit the evidence of their own eyes.
Pretty soon we will be having to admit that India is our better too, although I see some on the right think we should retake India as part of a new Empire, because that is our destiny. Somehow forgetting the size of India, its nuclear weapons and its hatred of its colonial past, oh and the state of the British armed forces too.
Then there is Poland that will soon overtake us in wealth and Spain which is booming, we are already weaker than Germany and France and even though neither country’s economy is performing well the Eurozone as a whole is beating us into a cocked hat.
What do you think will happen as Washington retreats ever further from the world stage, abandons its leading role in world economics and abandons the West?
Do Johnson, Farage and Badenoch really think the world will return to us for leadership? They cannot really think Brexit has made us stronger, more powerful, richer, a leader, admired, feared and respected, ready to pick up the mantle of empire and turn the world map red again.
Because like Trump and his fantasies the reality is different, we are a joke. We are caught between American isolationism and tariffs and European indifference to our self imposed plight.
The Daily Express would be well advised to stick to Epstein stories, it is more dignified and at least they did not help cause that vile mess.
From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
This cuts to the very heart of our national problems. The terrible and deeply held delusion that we are still a major player on the global stage, entitled and able to influence events. We aren't. We need friends and a clear, new strategy. Europe it is.
A closer relationship with those of our European neighbours supporting Ukraine and already defending themselves against hybrid Russian aggression is surely, now, an existential necessity for the UK?