UK must work with Irish friends to build a society fit for all, not the elite
ON Tuesday (November 27), two letters were published by the Irish Independent on Brexit.
One, from Paul Connolly, address withheld, argues against the view that Britain is being bullied by the EU and, in effect, that with reference to Lloyd George’s aggressive demands to the Irish delegation in 1921, the UK has now been hoist by its own petard.
The second, from Len Gurrie, from London, argues the opposite, in as far as if the UK leaves the European Union without an agreement, it will be the fault of the EU.
As a UK national, I must say that whatever befalls the UK, it is of its own making.
My own view is that the most important element of the EU confederacy is economic.
And I firmly believe that the people of most of the countries in the EU would rather that it did not follow the path of centralised political power and administration, especially under the auspices of appointed but unelected short-term, also-ran presidents who have no interests in the future of the organisation after they have served their self-serving term.
What the UK ought to have done was to object to the politicisation of the EU, while still being a member. I would have loved to have been a part of such a policy and I am certain that we could have achieved this.
Unfortunately, as we all know to our detriment, those whom we vote into power in our so-called democracies discard us and our well being as soon as their positions, and those of their class, are threatened.
In the case of the UK, it was the decrepit David Cameron who hoped against hope that his promise of a referendum would keep him in power, but instead has led to a potential economic crisis of enormous proportions, both to the UK but also to Ireland. After all is said and done, in times of imminent disaster, it is the ordinary people of our nations who suffer most.
We live in hope, nothing is written in stone. But we need to work with our friends in the EU, and in particular in Ireland, to forestall a potential disaster and unite to create a society for us to prosper; not for the benefit of the commercial and political sections of our countries, but for ourselves, ordinary people without economic or political power, trying to do our best to survive. Harry Charalambou
London, UK