UK’s yearning to dump present and go back to the past will see it end up as Trump’s pathetic sidekick

IT was said just before we joined the EU that Britain had lost an Empire and failed to find a role.

The country was impoverished by war, thought it could prosper by free trade with its Commonwealth and, when this failed, desperately tried to join the EU for almost a decade: France, under de Gaulle refused to admit us.

After the 1973 admission, we were known as the ‘sick man of Europe’, but gradually we came to prominence within the group, contributing vital ideas and promoting its evolution into the single market and customs union it is today.

It was many of our ideas that were eventually implemented there. We had definitely found a role at the heart of Europe. But there was always nostalgia for something we had lost.

This nostalgia can be corrosive; it undermines progress into a realistic future and development of new roles. There is a yearning to dump the present and go back to the past. This can be very damaging.

We are all experiencing that now. We are giving up our role at the heart of Europe. So, what now?

Did anyone notice the visit of Netanyahu to Boris last week? Boris looked completely frazzled and distracted and whiffled ‘two-state solution’ with his usual blustery delivery, met by a polite frost.

There didn’t seem to be serious possibility of wielding diplomatic influence. Our divisions have certainly lost us face on the world stage.

Mike Pence visited to ensure us of trade and pledge support to Boris. Trump is delighted to break up the EU, even to the point of abandoning the US’s traditional support of Ireland.

Pence’s behaviour in Dublin shocked, but shouldn’t have surprised. Perhaps our new role is just to be Trump’s sidekick?

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR