Dangerous Times or Sticking Up Two Fingers To Europe.

Not just a flag or a logo - the EU symbol is a

recognition of how interdependent and reliant we all are

on each other in this modern world

The other night I sat watching the international football match between Italy and Belgium. A few days ago I had watched the game between England and Russia and on the same day witnessed the violence between English and Russian football fans in France for this European competition. As I watched the games my eye was taken by the electronic advertising hoardings around the pitch – a non-stop streaming of great international brand names from around the world: American Coca-Cola, Turkish Airlines, South Korean Hyundai cars, Chinese Hisense TVs, American McDonalds burgers , German Adidas sports-wear, German Continental car tyres, Orange mobile phones, Azerbaijan Energy......the list went on and on. This morning I got the same message again as I stood in our local village greengrocer to buy a bunch of bananas. As I stood waiting to be served boxes and crates of newly delivered fruit, vegetables and flowers from far off places were being carried through the shop, their labels identifying their source: Holland, France, Spain, Argentina, Italy, Denmark, South Africa, Portugal. And, as I sit writing this blog on a wet June morning in the middle of England I am using a Japanese lap top and through the window I can see my two cars – one a German VW but built in Spain and the other a Japanese Nissan with a French Renault engine but all put together in the north east of England. And as I type this blog I am listening on my internet radio to Radio Outback - a radio station broadcasting to the remote and far off outback areas of Australia! What an interwoven and interdependent world we all now live in!

Following this line of thought, in the two European football matches that I have watched so far, and despite the fact that only one of the teams – England – is known to me, many of the names and faces of the rest of the players I recognised because they play in England even though they are Russian or Italian or Belgian. When England play Wales in a day or two the star of the Welsh team, Gareth Bale plays for Real Madrid in Spain whilst the manager of last night’s victorious Italian team will shortly arrive on London to be manager of Chelsea! Last night two players, Belgium’s Marouane Fellaini faced Italy’s Romelu Lukaku; only a few weeks ago they faced each other at Wembley when their respective club sides – Manchester United and Everton - played each other in the FA Cup semi final. And when they return to their clubs they will find new managers in charge – at Manchester United, the Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho and at Everton the Dutch manager Ronald Koeman. Football, like the rest of the world, has become interwoven and global.

England in Europe - sadly not what we want to portray

One might feel that the whole world is moving too fast with all this globalisation; there might be many dangers in it. But it is here, it is out of the bag and will not be put back. It cannot be uninvented. It is the reality of the 21st century and whether we like it or not we have to learn to live with it, control it and use it for our benefit.

One cannot deny that there are many real or potential downsides to globalisation and interdependency. From refugee or immigration crises and rioting football fans, to financial crashes, global economic downturns and terrorism we are all subject to the highs and lows of the world at large. Only a year or two ago the whole of the middle east was alight with revolution and the quest for “democracy” – the “Arab Spring” fuelled by 24 hour news and social media spread like wildfire as autocratic governments were challenged and sometimes disposed off. Inevitably other nations became involved as western governments sought to support their interest in these areas or restore order. Today, one of the fall outs from that period of turmoil is Syria where refugees are flooding away from a civil war and into Europe in the hope of a better life. Never can it be more true that a butterfly flapping its wings in some South American jungle can cause a tsunami elsewhere; whether it be football, high finance, terrorism, war, commerce, industry, recreation, food, cars, TVs or computers what happens in one place can and does have an effect elsewhere. We cannot, today, avoid the repercussions of our links with other nations. That is the modern reality of life.

Against this back drop, however, here in the UK we are hurtling towards the unforgivable and nonsensical situation where, it seems, we are happy to bury our communal heads in the sand and refuse to believe that any of this is true. With each day that passes it seems that we are more likely to deny that we are part of this great global interdependency and vote to remove ourselves from the action by leaving the EU and going it alone. When PM David Cameron, in his wisdom decided that a referendum on the issue should be held should be held it looked as if and exit from Europe was unlikely but his calculations appear to have gone badly wrong. He has opened the proverbial can of worms. Cameron only went down this route to satisfy a number of his own party’s Little Englanders all of whom live in some bizarre time warp where they deny the modern world’s international interdependency. Sadly and worryingly we now have a position where it seems Cameron’s worst nightmare is likely to become a reality – as a nation we are about to cut ourselves adrift from the rest of the world and most importantly from our nearest friends and neighbours. Cameron will not be forgiven but more important this is unquestionably a nightmare scenario for the nation.

The Sun brainwashes its mindless readers

The Little Englander reality deniers leading the calls for the UK to leave Europe have used the anti-immigrant card and as each day passes we see and hear more and more extreme views being expressed all in the name of us 'getting back our nation’ from the much vilified and feared refugees, the job taking immigrants and faceless European bureaucrats who are all perceived by Brexiters to have one intention in mind – namely to take over and do unmentionable damage to the UK. The tabloid newspaper, The Sun has come out in favour of the UK leaving the EU and is advising its readers as such. The Sun has past form on this and sadly its rabble rousing headlines and lowest common denominator content have an impact. I seriously doubt that many readers of The Sun could spell Europe or place any European countries on a map of the world but in the end that doesn’t matter, because The Sun has told them so many times that all the nation’s ills will be solved by getting out of Europe that its readers will vote for exit. It is the same with other tabloids – notably the Daily Mail which, for added flavour, will add in the jingoistic “Britain is best” and recall the name of Winston Churchill and remind the nation that we “won the war” and won’t be ruled by “Johnny Foreigner” in Brussels or Paris or Berlin. In short the right wing media is effectively brain washing the unthinking and uncaring, preying on their fears and prejudices. It is not difficult for them to do this; our island status has historically bred a suspicion in the national psyche of any foreigners that would cross the English Channel to this fair isle and the added fact of two World War victories constantly reminds the Little Englanders amongst us that “Britain is best” and that we are (they believe) naturally superior to the French, the Italians, the Germans and the rest. Finally, if they need any more convincing then they need only reflect upon two verses from our National Anthem which sing the same jingoistic 'Britain is best song' and remind we English of how we should feel about those not fortunate enough to be born English (and I choose that word carefully):

O Lord our God arise
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall
Confound their politics
Frustrate their knavish tricks

On Thee our hopes we fix
God save us all

Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring
May he sedition hush
And like a torrent rush
Rebellious Scots to crush
God save the Queen

Confounding the politics of other nations, scattering them wide, crushing the Scots, frustrating the knavish tricks of these unfortunates who did not have the good sense or foresight to be born English – hardly the stuff of peace and getting along together as we must all do in this interdependent world. It should be of no surprise to anyone that as England football fans smashed bottles and chairs and fought Russian hardcore extremists on the streets of Marseilles at the weekend they chanted to the Russians, the local French people and the French police “F**k off Europe, we’re all voting out”; it’s the 21st century equivalent of the National Anthem reminding knavish, rebellious enemies that they will be crushed by good old England!

"F**k off Europe we're all voting out"

I am absolutely certain that leaving the EU is the worst possible thing that we as a nation can do. No one suggests that the EU is perfect, no one can claim that the EU has quick fix solutions to the many problems that we as a world face but what is equally certain is that nor do we English have the answers. And to turn our back upon our neighbours is not only contrary and perverse it flouts all common sense and good judgement. Those that would take this path are being led there by dubious politicians with other agendas – namely their own self aggrandisement. In recent months we in the UK have mocked US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and laughed at his bizarre policies and outbursts. We have also shaken our heads in disbelief that the citizens of the US are voting for this man in their droves. But we doing just the same. The equally bizarre and unpredictable Boris Johnson is our Donald Trump and he is ably abetted by a phalanx of other political half wits and self promoters : Michael Gove, Ian Duncan Smith, Nigel Farage and the rest; all people who have tuned into the prejudices and fears of ordinary citizens and are skilfully and insidiously manipulating these for their own ends. And sadly, the readers of The Sun and the Daily Mail, and thousands of other non-thinkers up and down the land are too dim or naive to see it.

I wonder, do these people who propose to vote for the UK to leave Europe believe for one minute that this will solve the nation’s and the world’s problems? If they do then they are far more stupid that even I take them for. Do they really believe that if we leave the EU that a new Prime Minister – likely to be Boris Johnson – with his rag bag collection of devious and nutty as fruit cake followers will be capable of making the sort of decisions that will turn around the whole tide of European and the wider world progress? Do they really believe that somehow this little island in the North Atlantic will have the magic bullet that will enable us to go it alone, ignore the great and complex web of interdependence and come out on top? If they do believe all this then we should all be very afraid.

But of course these people conveniently forget reality when it suits them. Someone comes along, preys on their fears and promises nirvana and they buy into it. And as the referendum gets closer and the "outers" increasingly play the immigrant card and bellow that 'England and St George is best, stuff the EU and the French, the Germans, the Italians and all the rest who are all so nasty to us poor little Englanders', then people like these will be in the ascendancy. Whether it be in the stadia or on the streets the message will be loud and clear from the Brexiters - 'Let's show these Johnny Foreigners who is boss - keep 'em out, send 'em back, let them know their place as our inferiors'. 

And yet only a few months ago Wembley Stadium was filled as everyone joined together and sang the French National Anthem following the terrorist atrocities in Paris. It brought a tear to our eyes - this was how we would defeat terrorism we were assured and we promised ourselves to stick together and show our love for each other and for all mankind. A few months before that we all put the French national colours on our Facebook pages; we were as one, we said, with our French brothers and sisters and we lit up our public buildings with the red white and blue of the French Tricolor  in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo ...... But now all this is forgotten: English politicians and tabloid newspapers beat the drum of division, jingoistic patriotism and simple prejudice and Englishmen are running the gauntlet of the police baton and tear gas on the streets of France. How short and shallow is goodwill to all men when tribes go to war be it on the football pitch, on the battlefield or on our streets. 

Boris Johnson - our very own Donald Trump

But when prejudice and fear raises its head the snake oil salesmen, politicians with a quick fix, the press barons, the extremists and terrorists are amongst us - not just from Afghanistan or ISIS but just as often from within our midst posing as the voice of “common sense”, They claim that they speak with the common sense voice of the people; a claim that frequently fell from the mouths of Hitler and Mussolini eighty years ago. And just as Hitler and Mussolini had their uniformed Black Shirt thugs on the streets of Berlin and Rome we now have the shaven headed, jingoistic football flag wavers loose on the streets of France. Many of these 'fans' would have been at Wembley a few months ago joining in with the French National Anthem and showing solidarity with their French footballing brothers. Now they are singing a different song to their neighbours - one of violence and thuggery and, in two weeks time many of them will again stick two fingers up to our European neighbours by voting to leave Europe. They will repeat their chant of last weekend but now it will be in the ballot box:“F**k off Europe, we’re all voting out”.

We live in very dangerous times – in the UK (or more specifically England) – we are becoming increasingly prejudiced, uninformed and unthinking; swayed by the tabloid headlines and the snake oil salesmen. And across the Atlantic the USA is in a similar predicament and increasingly looking a society in turmoil and terminal decline. It is easy to influence the uninformed and unthinking and, as Edmund Burke, the Enlightenment philosopher, a reminded everyone "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." But in 21st century Britain we are not talking of association, of coming together with our friends and neighbours to overcome our mutual problems and fears – we are talking instead of division, disunity and disharmony. Lemming like, we are stampeding towards the cliff edge driven by the unthinking, uninformed mass of EU “outers” and cheered on by the snake oil salesmen dressed up as “common sense politicians” preaching the message of disunity and disharmony. Like ostriches we are burying our heads in the sand and rejecting the interdependence of the world which is so obvious on our TV screens, in our football stadia and in our grocer’s shops.

And when the flagpole breaks...........

When, on June 23rd , we have rejected interdependence and our association with Europe and have left the EU we will stand alone, a tiny island in the North Atlantic. We will then, as predicted by Burke fall, unpitied sacrifices increasingly dependent on the goodwill not of our friends in Europe but on the USA – a society in terminal decline and possibly led by the unpredictable and unpleasant President Trump. And, if we do leave our European friends there is every likelihood of a domino effect - others may follow so we are not simply talking about our own disharmony and disunity we are endangering the harmony, goodwill and unity of a whole continent. In these unpredictable times that  not only threatens the peace of the world but almost certainly will cause economic and social consequences that cannot be controlled.  We are being led into a maelstrom by the uninformed, the uncaring, the snake oil salesmen, the hardcore right wing media, the thugs and the plain stupid. We should all be very afraid.