Tory Brexiteers fantasising about a return to days of ‘splendid isolation’
IN THE last quarter of the 19th century, British foreign policy was dominated by Lord Salisbury, who pursued a policy known as ‘splendid isolation’.
The English Channel alleviated, to some extent, the need for agreements or alliances. Economically, Britain, the ‘workshop of the world’, was almost completely self-sufficient. Britain’s navy ‘ruled the waves’.
Many British people regarded Europeans with a mixture of condescension and contempt.
Queen Victoria maintained that “we are the only honest people and therefore our task of dealing with others who are not so is dreadful”.
These factors, combined with Britain’s lack of real territorial ambition in Europe, enabled her to pursue the policy of ‘splendid isolation’.
It was a policy of non-interference or non-commitment in the affairs of Europe. Britain was, however, prepared to collaborate or to intervene when she perceived her interests were in danger.
Ian O’Doherty (comment, Irish Independent, January 8) wrote: “While it would be inaccurate to dismiss all Leave voters as ‘Little Englanders’, that unappealing trait has risen to the fore, with the flames gleefully stoked by the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg. Rees-Mogg has been doing his best to frame this as the old trope of plucky little Albion defending itself.”
O’Doherty describes this as a Tory civil war and says they voted to leave out of their own self-interest.
Perhaps Rees-Mogg and other Tory grandees should abandon their nostalgia for the past.
Drumraney, Co Westmeath