Tuesday 12 February 2019

Brexit, the world’s most boring thriller

SHARE
I disagree with Matthew D'Ancona on almost everything but he is right about how inexplicably boring the Brexit crisis is. I turn to Brexit news first, like Charles Moore who thinks he is alone in doing so, read it insatiably, but it is so dull. And even I cannot bring myself to watch or read Theresa May's speeches. To quote Mr. D'Ancona, who recently announced that he is no longer a Tory (as if he ever were one):


It all has the feel of the world’s most boring thriller. Though there are only just under seven weeks left until Britain’s official date of departure from the European Union, public life seems drowsy with a lethal brew of fatalism, insouciance and burrowing cowardice.

Here is something from an article by George Soros today in - where else? - The Guardian today which cheered me  up immensely:


"The current [EU] leadership is reminiscent of the politburo when the Soviet Union collapsed – continuing to issue edicts as if they were still relevant."
He goes on:


The first step to defending Europe from its enemies, both internal and external, is to recognise the magnitude of the threat they present. The second is to awaken the sleeping pro-European majority and mobilise it to defend the values on which the EU was founded. Otherwise, the dream of a united Europe could become a 21st-century nightmare.


I wonder why the values of the 1990s cannot be questioned by the electorate. In fact these values are constantly being changed. In 1998 when I left England hanging had not been abolished for treason. Now European values enshrined in European law mean that no country can reintroduce capital punishment (I have never been in favour, incidentally). It's the same with lots of things like can ing in scholol which were once normal.

2 comments:

  1. When I was a young man, how I would curse
    The dullness inhabiting this place.
    Now I hold my breath so it will not break.
    I have the superstition of the hearse.

    The finest sound is the phone not ringing.
    The past is the only safe country.
    I would plant a tent there if I could,
    The immortal birds atop it, singing.

    Every morning would begin the same,
    The music at play inside the head,
    Feeding the birds from the heart’s hollow,
    Hastening off into God’s own daydream.

    —Dan Sheehan

    https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/03/the-phone-not-ringing

    ReplyDelete