Although I was not born in Britain, I am very proud and privileged to have lived and worked in this country for many years and I get so irritated by the ‘Remainers’ who cannot get over the fact that the Great British Public voted for Brexit in the Referendum and still feel that the only way for us to succeed, is to continue to hide under the ‘apron strings’ of the European Community.
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Where is your belief in the ingenuity and ‘greatness’ of Britain? Do you think that twenty-two miles of the English Channel deterred the very determined Mr. Hitler from invading us, or do you think he feared that we were made of ‘sterner stuff’? This is in sharp contrast to our European counterparts, whose armed forces at the time, fell like ninepins during WWII, after only weeks of combat. As we all know, some of them even collaborated with the Germans, so as to get more favourable treatment for themselves, I.e. the Vichy Government in Paris.
Just in case one gets too wrapped up in the romance of staying within Europe, just remember that during the Falklands war, when our men were being strafed by the Argentinean air force in their French Super Etendard jets, we asked the French for the codes for the Exocet missiles used against us, which they studiously refused to do and, moreover, continued to send spare parts to the enemy during the conflict. This is in sharp contrast to the Americans who helped us enormously with logistical support from the Ascension Islands. If that is what you call ‘European solidarity’ I hate to see what ‘treachery’ represents.
At the turn of the last Century, Great Britain was the most powerful empire, with good reason. We have exported our tried and tested judiciary, customs, language and culture to many far-flung places of the globe. We excel at a lot of things and in many ways have changed the World – for the better. To name but a few innovations: the lightbulb; the chocolate bar; the electric telegraph; the pneumatic tyre; cats’ eyes; carbon fibre; the steam engine; the worldwide web; the telephone; the television; passenger railways; the tank; the toothbrush; the kettle; the jet engine; stainless steel; the electric motor; photography; the hovercraft and the vacuum cleaner – the list goes on and on!
Where would the World have been without certain British icons such as Sir Winston Churchill, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Darwin, William Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, The Beatles and TS Eliot?
Whilst our land mass may be no bigger than New Zealand – only 50% the size of France and 2% of the United States – the World would be a poorer place if Britain had not existed.
As an illustration as to how we can ‘pull our socks up’ if we are ‘caught flagging’, in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, we achieved one miserable gold medal, whilst France and Germany won 35 between them. Immediately thereafter, John Major re-directed the Lottery windfall in order to regenerate our sporting prowess and the effect of this was quite startling i.e. in the Rio Olympics of 2016, we achieved more gold medals than France and Germany combined. That is what you call a ‘volte-face’.
Britain does things differently and we just don’t ‘toe-the line’, even when it is in our interests to do so.
Example: When Qatar, France, South Africa and Russia applied to ‘the paragon of virtue’ Mr. Sepp Blatter of FIFA in order to host the World Cup for themselves, they turned up with the obligatory £20million bribe ‘stuffed in suitcases’, as part of the established protocol at the time. Despite being more than qualified to host the event than others, Great Britain was ‘passed-over’, since we were not prepared to participate in these ‘slush funds’, which did us no favours at the time. The eminent presence of Prince William, The Prime Minister, Lord Coe and David Beckham at the Award Ceremony, did not assist either – clearly, ‘money talks’ and ‘celebrities walk!’ Did we kowtow to the regime? No, we didn’t. Instead we ‘blew the whistle’ and broke up the Fiefdom with the help of our American friends. I call this ‘doing business the hard way’, but this has never deterred the British Bulldog spirit.
Now turning to Europe. The Germans and French have large manufacturing and agricultural industries which harmonise with the European economic model, whilst we have neither. Instead, we have the largest Financial Service Industry in the World and Europe needs us to process many of their transactions. This is why the fit between the present, pre-federalised Europe does not and has never worked for us. In fact, by excluding ourselves from the Euro and Schengen Agreement, for instance, has ensured that we remain uniquely successful. We do not enjoy the subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which is for the benefit of the French and our relatively small manufacturing base gains little advantage from the 27 other consumer nations buying our goods, as is the case with Germany, which otherwise would have a much stronger currency, if it were not in the Euro.
Post-Brexit and out of the Customs Union, as it is presently arranged, we are more than able to ‘plough our own furrow’ and negotiate our own trade agreements with some of the fastest growing economies in the World i.e. India, China, USA, Canada, Australia etc., instead of relying on Brussels to do this for us. Is it any wonder, therefore, why we have done more business with Europe hitherto than the rest of the World, which renders us more dependent on them than should have been the case? Europe is a 1950s phenomenon and is no longer relevant in today’s internet-run world, where you no longer need to be geographically close to your trading partners, to enjoy good, reciprocal business.
Worry not about all the bankers who are concerned about the ‘passports’ to do business in this sector with the rest of Europe. We have 2million people employed by financial services and yes, a fraction of these, will set up satellite offices, judiciously positioned to get around the European regulations, in places such as Dublin and Frankfurt, but this is the equivalent of sending ‘Brenda at reception, to represent the company.’ I may try and get a Lithuanian passport to ease any congestion at immigration in Europe, but that doesn’t make me any less committed to the joys of being British.
I would like to propose a new initiative; that every product that is grown, assembled, produced or manufactured in the UK should have a Union Jack strategically emblazoned upon it and we should all feel a moral imperative to buy select British goods, in favour of those from any other parts of the World. Why not? Let’s support our own nation brand.
I would vote today for the EEC (Economic European Community) model as it was intended in the Referendum of 1973, but certainly not the bloated, bureaucratic, unaccountable and corrupt pre-federalised super-state, that it is today.
Over the past twenty years Europe has shrunk from 31.4% of the World GDP to 23.8% whilst Great Britain’s economy has done rather well, over the same time. If you are part of the ‘great 50% south European unemployed’, do you think that you would be beguiled by the virtues of being in Europe or would you instead, want to emigrate to Britain, where there are real jobs and a proper future? We are the second largest receiver of inward foreign investment, have the third largest reserve currency and are ranked the 5th largest economy in the world and a powerful military force.
We have given this planet some of the greatest cultural, scientific and technological assets, as we regularly ‘punch above our weight’.
Believe in Britain! We can scale even greater heights as a proud nation in the post Brexit era, once we are free from the ‘shackles’ of the failed European experiment. Leaving the Titanic after it was impaled, was never a bad thing – even though the music played on … for a while!
It was not long ago, that the same inane voices who are presently clamoring for a second Referendum, in the vain hope that there would be a better result for them, were advocating for us to join the Euro which would have spelt economic disaster for us as a nation.
London is the ‘greatest city on earth’ and let us rejoice and celebrate this country and let’s all put the ‘Great’ back into Britain!
Fly the flag and lets go back to the future!