Rejection of a vision of peace

From: James Bovington, Horsforth, Leeds.

ON HER first official visit here, the recently appointed EU Commission president fondly recalled her time studying in London as allowing her to appreciate how ‘open-minded, big-hearted, proud and patriotic, kind and generous in spirit’ English people can be.

This idyllic observation may no longer be the case as the true nature of the isolationist, xenophobic and dystopian future Boris Johnson and the Brexiteers crave is quickly becoming apparent as the Government refuses to enshrine in law a wide range of commitments ranging from the rights of child migrants and refusal to guarantee continued involvement in the highly successful EU student exchange programme Erasmus.

Named after the 16th century scholar, this scheme has allowed nearly a quarter of a million UK students to benefit from study elsewhere in Europe. Of course the visionary Erasmus promoted a peaceful and united Europe built on humanist values whose modern equivalent, the EU, is anathema to the millions of older voters who swallowed the nasty, nostalgic and negative narrative that will harm younger hardworking people from the four nations of the obviously disUnited Kingdom by depriving them of the social and cultural enrichment that comes with freedom of movement so callously dismissed by the Tory Right.

I turn 60 shortly so yes, regrettably I mean many of my generation.

How correct was the banner carried at the pro-EU demonstration in London last October stating that ‘We’d rather be citizens of a united Europe than a dead empire’? In due course I hope that it will be possible for the English to take their rightful place in developing a European future.

And to those who say that multi-lingual Ursula von der Leyen is an unelected bureaucrat I agree that she is – just as is Dominic Cummings the alt-right cultural and economic aide to whom Boris has entrusted power to take back control … from our own Parliament. How many people voted for dastardly Dom?