2022 is here. Forty nine years ago we joined our European partners and began building relationships. How many remember what life was like prior to 1973? The vegetables and fruit you ate were seasonal and mums and grannies preserved some for when they were not in season. Family members going to work abroad often lost touch if they couldn’t find time to write. Macaroni cheese was exotic and people like my dad didn’t like it.
Slowly over the years my age group expanded our horizons. It became easier to travel abroad, especially the European Union countries. As technology developed so did all sorts of agreements with our partners. Education experiences abroad became the expected for many. While some at home moaned about foreigners taking our jobs, our friends and family were working abroad and settling down there. A point a friend of ours made on many doorstops during the Brexit referendum.
We have now reached the end of the adjustment period agreed for Brexit and the UK must stand on its own now. Are we ready? Are we hell! It has been reported in the past couple of days that UK companies are ceasing to trade with Europe. The mountain of paperwork and the cost are just not worth it. I am guessing that the same will apply to European countries exporting to the UK. All those years of negotiating and building up good working relationships flushed down the pan. For some people that has been their entire working life gone, nothing left to show for it despite all the promises from Westminster that all would be okay. Why?
The politically far right element has never felt comfortable in the European Union. They have been chipping away for the entire forty nine years. They have worked on chosen sections and dripped in certain ideas and phrases that then became part of that community. Job done, move onto the next targeted group. Johnny Foreigner has taken your house. How was it your house? You weren’t evicted from it. They are taking your jobs. Really? Were you sacked? Had you even applied for that job in the first place? It was a whispering campaign that became ever louder as the far right were being elected to government. It was at screaming point by the time of the Brexit referendum. How the hell did they ever manage to convince so many that the UK was so great? Britain has never been great at anything except ruining peoples lives, all over the world.
I have always been a ‘small is beautiful’ believer. Small people working together can achieve so much, which was partly what being in Europe was about. I see reports that the Tory support is falling. I hope it’s not too late. I hope our friends in Europe can hang on a wee bit longer to welcome us back as a small independent country. Sorry England, we can wait no longer. You have made your bed.