Henry VIII and Brexit
I have just finished the very funny and intelligent “Unruly” by David Mitchell, and the bit on Henry VIII got me thinking.
There is a surreal connection between Henry VIII’s 6 wife’s and Brexit.
He just wanted a male heir and therefore a divorce from a woman who hadn’t given him a male heir. Normally not a problem, except Catherine of Aragon’s nephew just happened to be occupying Italy at the time, and the Pope couldn’t oblige. Henry rebelled and found his rebellion taken over by the protestant ultras.
The result was centuries of schism, warfare, sectarianism, hatred, blood shed and misery. There are still people in Northern Ireland and elsewhere who think that the Pope is the anti-christ. Not as a publicity stunt or to be rude and offensive, they genuinely think he is the anti-christ.
Then we have the Brexiteers who are deeply concerned about plastic bottle tops. In an attempt to make them more polluting they believe we not only had to leave the EU, but that we have to destroy it and all its works. We have to abolish all its laws, rules and regulations even if it means replacing them with identical ones, so long as they are British and that we are serfs if we decide that any EU law is in our own interest and should be adopted.
Strange because when we had a referendum on our divorce from the EU, no one mentioned this madness. It was all about staying in the Single Market and having all the benefits of membership but none of the costs. But then the second the vote was in the ultras took over.
Poor old Henry he only wanted to have sons, poor old Britain we only wanted to keep bootle tops free and independent of bottles, apparently.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
Sorry, but this bit did jump off the page... "...having all the benefits of membership but none of the costs."
And maybe it is what many Brits thought they were voting for. But it is Libertarian parasitism at its finest. And so very "British Empire", where so many of the costs were borne by Johnny Foreigner, far away, while the benefits were claimed by the innately superior British.