A Wave of Anger Crashes over Britain
Europe used to have a fearful
respect of the Tories. But those days have long since passed. Now, the weakened
party may have accidentally killed off Brexit -- a pet project that most party
leaders didn't want in the first place.
An Editorial by Thomas
Hüetlin
Once upon a time, under the
leadership of Margaret Thatcher, the Tories filled all of Europe with
trepidation. French President François Mitterrand complained to his
psychologist that he was plagued by nightmares caused by the British leader and
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, as unclassified British documents revealed in
late 2016, once preferred to chow down on a cream pie in Salzburg than meet
with the British prime minister.
Many in the UK thought a bit
of fear was a good thing. Fear sounded like respect and influence -- and, more
than anything, like good deals. But now, after two catastrophic elections in less than a year,
that is over. Completely.
"The country looks
ridiculous," the Financial Times -- not exactly a leftist mouthpiece --
wrote recently. Indeed, the party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher
has turned into a gaggle of high rollers and unwitting clowns.
First came Boris Johnson, who
vociferously supported Brexit last year to show his boss, Prime Minister David
Cameron, what an outstanding orator he was even though he, Johnson, didn't
really want Brexit. They both went all in, and the country lost.
And now we have Theresa May,
who didn't really want Brexit either, but decided after last summer's
referendum to throw her support behind leaving the European Union if it meant
that she could become prime minister.
"The lady's not for
turning," is one of the more famous quotes uttered by Margaret Thatcher.
But her heirs currently leading the Tories are now turning so quickly that many
observers aren't just getting dizzy. They are becoming nauseous.
Incompetently Cool and
Calculating
Great Britain may be an
island, but economically it is the most interconnected country in Europe: The
financial center in London, the country's carmakers, what's left of British
industry and even the country's infrastructure. France delivers electricity,
water sanitation facilities in southern England belong to Germans and large
airports such as Heathrow are owned by Spaniards. One quarter of the doctors
who keep afloat the NHS -- Britain's comparatively deficient health care system
-- come from the Continent.
The promise of Brexit was
steeped in ideology from the very beginning, a fairy tale based on dark
chauvinism. The Spanish Armada, Napoleon, Hitler and now the Polish plumbers
who allegedly push down wages -- when in reality they ensured that, after
decades of lukewarmly dripping showers, the country's bathrooms gradually
returned to functionality. Brexit was never a particularly good idea. Now,
following the most recent election, Brexit is defunct. That, at least, is what
a member of Theresa May's cabinet intimated last weekend. "In practical
terms, Brexit is dead," an unnamed minister told the Financial Times.
