Brexit is a beacon of hope for all Europe
NOT for the first time in our history, Britain has lit a beacon to inspire millions across Europe who feel ignored, disdained and oppressed by ruling elites.
Indeed, those at home who are nervous about Brexit should take heart from the joyful reaction of countless EU citizens who yearn to follow our example.
From the Atlantic to the Aegean, they have endured the same frustrations and anxieties – the sense of impotence to run their affairs and control mass migration.
In Greece, France and Spain, polls show more want to pull out of the EU than to stay in. And in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, over 40 per cent are against membership, along with many more than a third of Italians and Hungarians.
Yet for years, these disenfranchised millions were told it was simply not possible to reform the EU – let alone leave it – and that the free movement of people is an immutable part of the package.
Last week, all that changed overnight, as Britons led the way in showing there is an alternative to letting secretive judges and bureaucrats dictate how we live or who can settle in our countries.
Indeed, the Brexit victory has inspired dozens of demands for referendums – including calls for votes on dumping the euro and tightening migration policy.
Yet faced with this clamour, Europe’s elites remain in pig-headed denial.
If only they had offered David Cameron the slightest meaningful reform, the vote might have gone the other way.
But in their arrogant conviction that they knew best, they showed they were incapable of heeding public concerns.
And look at them now. Terrified that others may follow the UK’s lead, that sneering, bibulous buffoon Jean-Claude Juncker – one of the EU’s five presidents! – refuses informal talks about a trade deal (though he’s happy to meet the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, if only to snub her).
Bizarrely, in a total inversion of the truth, he blames Mr Cameron’s supposed euroscepticism for the result, saying: ‘If you tell citizens something is wrong with the EU, you cannot be taken by surprise if voters believe you.’
Even the usually sensible Angela Merkel rules out negotiations before we apply formally to withdraw. (Though how long before German exporters, desperate for a free trade deal because they sell us so much, make her change her mind?)
Meanwhile, under fierce domestic fire over migration, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte loftily declares that the UK has ‘collapsed’ because of Brexit.
How, then, does he explain why the FTSE index is back at pre-referendum levels? And why have Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, Toyota and Dixons all declared their full confidence in the UK’s future?
How significant, too, that since the vote, France has said the once non-negotiable free movement of people has suddenly become negotiable, while the border controls it threatened to move to England are to remain on French soil?
No, it’s the countries that stay behind in the EU, chained to a backward system collapsing under its bureaucracy, which have more to fear from the future.