Britannia, a disunited kingdom
A Little England could be all that’s left
I t was a sober and spent-looking Mark Carney who attempted to reassure the world that Great Britain is still open for business, the morning after voters elected to leave the European Union, the destination for half the country’s exports.
This was the same Mark Carney who was demonized by the angry populism of the Leave campaign as part of the problem — a member of the plutocratic elites making decisions that are antithetical to the well-being of “real people, ordinary people, decent people,” in the words of UKIP ringleader, Nigel Farage.
There was a mordant irony in the fact that Carney was riding to rescue all Britons from the folly of a decision that will likely see borrowing costs, unemployment and taxes rise — just as the sterling, growth and home prices fall.
Carney may have been illadvised to move out of his lane and actively campaign for Remain, as his critics charge, but he warned there would be a price to pay for Brexit.
That warning fell on deaf ears of most English voters, such as the two ladies interviewed by BBC Newsnight in Bognor Regis. “He doesn’t know any more than we do really, does he?” said one woman. “Does he know what it’s like to go down Sainsbury’s shopping?”
Carney may or may not know the price of French beans or tomatoes down Sainsbury’s, but he cautioned that they will probably cost more next week than they did last week, should Britain opt out.
Boris Johnson, who provided star power to the Leave campaign, tweeted that the U.K. will continue to be a “great European power” but companies from Airbus to Morgan Stanley are reviewing their investment strategies, with the bank already planning to move staff to Dublin.
David Cameron, the prime minister, has paid with his job for gambling with U.K.’s future — referendums are never a great idea because they force people to make a binary decision.
But the blame for the inevitable fallout lies with Farage and the other Leave campaigners, who stoked latent British feelings of xenophobia and isolation.
Leave talked about creating a confident sovereign nation, putting the “great” back into Great Britain and the “united” back into United Kingdom. But the dog whistle many voters heard was about closing borders and limiting immigration, even though European migrants are net contributors to the U.K.’s public finances.
The triumph of those forces is likely to see Great Britain turn into Little England and a united sovereign state of four constituent parts fracture into two, perhaps three, separate countries.
It was a grim experience Thursday night watching the land of my birth abandon the moderation and tolerance that has been at its heart my entire life.
It started off as a lark — at the first signs of a Leave rally, I tweeted that, on the plus side, my impending nuptials in Scotland were about to get cheaper.
But as it became clearer that there was trouble ahead, things became less amusing.
When the result was announced, Jason Kenney, the Conservative MP from Calgary, tweeted congratulations to the “British people” for choosing “hope over fear.”
But five years from now, I doubt there will be a “British people.” Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, has already said another Scottish independence vote is “highly likely.” Scotland voted 62 per cent to 38 per cent to remain in the EU; Scots see their future in a modern Europe, not as part of some village green preservation society, hearkening after a time that never even existed.
I covered the first independence referendum for this newspaper and felt that, while there were some benefits to having government closer to the people, demands for more autonomy were satisfied by a regional parliament that acts in similar fashion to a Canadian provincial legislature. Now, I’m less sure.
An ugly, anti-establishment mood has taken hold among the people in the English shires, who appear to consider nothing beyond the tiny world they inhabit.
They either don’t believe they will be worse off under Brexit, or consider a turnip-based economy a price worth paying. They are prepared to burn the village, in the belief it might preserve it.
But as Winston Churchill once said of socialism, this craving for a pure laine cultural identity is a “philosophy of failure…. (I)ts inherent virtue is an equal sharing of misery.”
That is fundamentally different from the prevailing sense of inclusivity and optimism north of the border, where former first minister Alex Salmond held a press conference in front of dozens of pro-Scottish independence EU nationals days before the last vote.
In Northern Ireland too, where 56 per cent of the people voted to remain, there are signs of storms brewing. Sinn Fein, the Republican party, has called for a poll on a united Ireland, saying the British government has forfeit a mandate to represent the people of Northern Ireland.
This vote has created a disunited kingdom that threatens to tear itself apart, making a mockery of those who claim to have acted in the name of the “British people.”
I’ve always believed in, and taken comfort from, Abraham Lincoln’s contention that democrats must have “patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people.”
Sometimes, though, I wonder. As they say back in the Auld Sod, I hae ma doors ... I hae ma doots.
THE BLAME FOR THE FALLOUT LIES WITH FARAGE AND THE LEAVE CAMPAIGNERS, WHO STOKED LATENT BRITISH FEELINGS OF XENOPHOBIA AND ISOLATION. — JOHN IVISON