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Tuesday 28 June 2016

Unconsciously Uncoupling

In a world where connectivity has never been so easily facilitated, it is hard to believe we are breaking up rather than regenerating our European connections.

It seems as if the country is sleepwalking into chaos - the leave campaign having been the architect for a project with apparently no builders. Was it really just a hypothetical prospect used as a political manoeuvre for prospective prime ministers? Does the ruling elite really have such little integrity? 

In a society very much taken with home improvements, you would think we would recognise when a well executed makeover would be a better bet then a complete restructure. Sadly, Nick Knowles and his DIY SOS team are not coming to Britain's rescue. It would have taken more than 60 minutes to makeover the niggles in our connection with Europe but it is always better to be in with a say in how things work, than on the outside looking sorrowfully at what we could have won.

People have failed to realise the full implications of leaving the EU. Of course there have been concerns over employment and immigration but what about those whose jobs rely on our being part of Europe? Nobody mentioned them, or the full economic and social and political implications that are revealed to us daily as the news plays on. 

Did the leave campaign anticipate the literal manifestation of broken Britain? A divided nation within a divided Europe? Our flag is the Union Jack for a reason and we should do our best to reclaim it as a symbol of unity rather than the badge of the Brexiteer. 

However the next few weeks and months play out, we would do well to consider the lines from EM Forster's Howard End:

'Only connect ... Live in fragments no longer.'

1 comment:

  1. Only Connect ! I remember from when I studied Passage to India for A level. So true now

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