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“We won two world wars so I guess we can stand on our own two feet...”

20/5/2016

1 Comment

 
This was a statement heard on Radio 4 this morning from someone in favour of Britain leaving the European Union. It is depressing indeed that such ill-informed stupidity is broadcast at breakfast time in the context of the upcoming referendum. Is this person aware of the blood shed and countless lives lost in order to provide him with democracy and universal suffrage? And he is going to use this wonderful gift in one of the most important votes he is ever likely to participate in, and make his decision based on the fact that Britain happened to belong to the victorious coalitions in the two world wars. Stand on our own two feet? I don’t think so.

George Orwell rightly praised patriotism, love of, and pride in, one’s country. Of course we should never forget Agincourt, Trafalgar, Waterloo and the Battle of Britain (but let us not forget also the Battle of Hastings and the retreat from Dunkirk). But the sun has well and truly set on the British Empire. We are a small island nation and we need our friends. And, I suspect, they need us. What we do not need, is idiots like the one quoted above having his infantile nonsense broadcast on prime-time radio.
1 Comment
Paul Robertson
28/5/2016 05:52:36 pm

I fully agree, and have shared this via Facebook in order to try and widen the audience a bit. Us ex-pats risk finding ourselves in a particularly difficult situation if the interlocutor on Radio 4 has his way. As is often said, there is a lot wrong with the EU, but you ain't going to fix it from outside. Britain is going to have to trade with the EU no matter what the outcome of the referendum might be, but opting to have no say in how that trading mechanism works seems to me to be very myopic.

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  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
    • Anatomy of a Bridge
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Family History
    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald