Broken Britain

I have to start by admitting I was one of the idiots who voted for Brexit. Mea culpa. I knew in my heart that if we left Europe we would be at the mercy of whatever Tory government clutched hold of power — and I was right. So how come I voted for the wrong side?

I made the mistake of turning to the Internet at the suggestion of a friend who happened to be what is dismissed as a ‘conspiracy theorist’. He introduced me to Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi (16 November 1894–27 July 1972) an early advocate of European union. I read that In his 1925 book Practical Idealism, Coudenhove-Kalergi envisioned an all-encompassing race of the future made up of “Eurasian-Negroid[s],” replacing “the diversity of peoples” and “[t]oday’s races and classes” with a “diversity of individuals.”[[i]

With hindsight, I’m ashamed to say that did it for me. Mass immigration became part of a sinister plot to destroy my identity. Sounds ridiculous now but I got caught up in the moment. Anyway, like so many people I never for a moment thought there would be a majority for Brexit or that our politicians would act on what was obviously some knee-jerk reaction to the seemingly ever-growing numbers of newcomers into a country suffering from the disastrous consequences of Neoliberal policies. And again, like many people I hadn’t associated economic migration with the bombs raining on so many defenceless countries while enriching so many rich bastards over here in the ‘West’.

So, Britain is broken. Lies and false promises tricked many Brits into selling our souls to the Devil. We have a clown Prime Minister for whom, against all sanity, a majority voted, and a ruling class enriching itself as they drive the majority of citizens into poverty and redundancy. Thatcher used to applaud Victorian values. Pity the stupid woman didn’t think about Victorian destitution.

We are now alone. No Europe, no Empire, no friends as far as I can see. I’m so glad I’m in my seventies. When I was a girl in the Fifties and Sixties, we had the whole world at our feet. Most children today only have the Internet at their fingertips. May the gods help them when they have to walk away from the screen and meet reality in the flesh.

[i] 1 Praktischer Idealismus, Wien/Leipzig 1925, pages 20, 23, 50