Really? I remember going to a Left Unity gig at Kings College London in which noted left winger, journalist, internationalist and activist, Tariq Ali, and supporter of an exit from the EU, said that it didn’t matter if we voted to leave the EU. We’d still be a vassal state of the US.
That is a commonly held sentiment, held to greater or lesser degree cross party, and across the public.
Post empire, there has been a realisation that we are not masters of our own destiny. So if we’re not, who is?
And, incidentally, I’m not comparing you to Nick Griffin, merely commenting that your little bon mot would sit well in his mouth. You, on the other hand, are comparing successive governments of this country with one that participated quite cheerfully in the rounding-up and extermination of Jews, Gypsies, socialists, communists, trades unionists and others. Still, Pétain had his reasons, I guess.
Again, we disagree entirely. As a linguist, you surely know that any mention of someone else in relation draws comparison. That’s a concept I think even laymen would appreciate.
My Vichy observations are based on subservience to a foreign power. We are a puppet of many nations. Militariliy, we have barely diverted from illegal US policy since the 1980s, the last time we had a serious disagreement. Economically, increasing areas of policy have come under the purview of the EU.
That is ceding sovereignty, and in many cases, I think there has been outright collaboration. I’m glad we officially voted to leave this mess before the far right gained power in this institution that everyone seemed so keen to be a part of. History will judge us well.
