Britain, Brexit and the Pain of Realising You’re No Longer a Great Power

For years, the British government bumbled along hoping that they could drag the Brexit discussions with the European Union out for as a long as possible, especially after the Theresa May-led Withdrawal Agreement fell in the British Parliament. The aim was to keep both sides of the governing Tory party happy—the Remainers who seek to frustrate Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and the Brextreemists who will accept nothing but a hard departure. The overarching aim was to prevent the Labour opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, from coming to power in a general election and passing laws to democratise business and politics, and legislate for a just society at the expense of upper class privilege.

But then the politician and celebrity Nigel Farage formed the Brexit Party and everything changed. Suddenly, the united right-wing Tory vote was potentially splintered for the first time; Farage’s previous venture, the UK Independence Party, hadn’t anywhere near the level of funding and popular support as the Brexit Party. By law, a general election risking a Corbyn government (due to the Brexit Party’s splitting of the Tory vote) did not have to occur before 2022. But the risk of a general election increased following PM May’s departure over a scandal involving the compromising of the US-UK “security” alliance.

The rich, hard-right wingnuts who constitute the grassroots Tory party had a plan: vote for the most charismatic, hard-right wingnut to lead their party and take over from May as Prime Minister. They chose Boris Johnson (BoJo the Racist Clown). In their minds, BoJo’s charisma would crush Corbyn in a general election and his posturing as a hard-right Brexiteer would prevent Brexit Party-induced vote-splitting. BoJo appointed the mastermind of the successful Vote Leave campaign, Dominic Cummings, as his advisor. The BoJo-Cummings plan was to portray the European Union member states as intransigent in the face of magnanimous British “compromises”; “compromises” meaning do as we say. The anticipation that the European Union would not “compromise” was designed to mobilise the gullible Little Englanders who see the wealthy establishment lackey BoJo as a “man of the people” fulfilling their wishes to leave the EU.

The rest of the leave-supporting establishment, particularly in the media (LBC radio, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Express), who are not au fait with the BoJo-Cummings plan expressed shock that the EU didn’t “compromise” (i.e., do as Britain’s elite demanded). Instead, the EU member states pulled together against BoJo’s ridiculous plan for the Republic of Ireland-Northern Ireland border. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told BoJo in a phone call that reaching an agreement is “overwhelmingly unlikely.” EU Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “what’s at stake is not winning some stupid blame game. At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people. You don’t want a deal, you don’t want an extension, you don’t want to revoke, quo vadis?”. The Republic of Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney stated: “it is hard to disagree” with Tusk.

Contrary to what pro-Brexit members of the establishment promised, the French are not begging Britain for a deal to save their wine exports. The Germans are not pleading for a deal to save their motor exports. There are no non-EU countries queuing up to sign “free trade” deals with Britain (thankfully!), except one that will make Britain the 51st state of the USA—that is if a Democrat-controlled, pro-Irish US Congress doesn’t block it over the Ireland issue. For those Britons who support Brexit but who don’t get the BoJo-Cummings plan, it must be a real shock to learn that the Great British Empire is no longer an Empire and was never that great after all.

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