It is more than a year now since the British electorate voted to quit the much loathed European Union. And yet not only are we still full members and a major financial contributor, the reality of actually getting back our independence to govern ourselves still seems a dim and distant hope. Today Prime Minister May chose Florence, Italy of all places to offer the EU unspecified billions of pounds for a half hearted departure by 2021, or sometime never.One strange result of the referendum was that the governing political class who generally campaigned to remain, suddenly had the task of implementing the instructions of their electorate to make it happen. Instead of sending in Britain's resignation together with an Invoice for the money owed by the EU to Britain the day after the vote, our politicians have procrastinated with talk of the process taking several years to complete as today's events demonstrate.
In many ways the British economy is doing well. A builder I spoke to today is fully booked with work until July 2018. He is not alone. Local businesses seem to be prospering. And in our base in the Canary Islands the expatriate community seems equally positive about leaving the EU. In short the doom and gloom the 'remainers' or 'remoaners' as they have been tagged just didn't happen.
A major film this summer - Dunkirk - turned the clock back to 1940 where the British Expeditionary Force was in retreat along with the French forces. Interestingly the film script such as there was, explained that the British and French were in retreat from the 'Enemy'. Curious that the role of the Germans was somehow not thought important to mention. Although it has been claimed the EU has been the reason that since the end of WW2 there has been peace in Europe, if we ignore the smaller wars and terrorism, it was not the EU but NATO that should be credited for this. In 1940 it was the British who challenged the German mission to subjugate Europe and for a few critical years stood entirely alone in standing up for the right of Britain and all the other countries of continental Europe to govern themselves. Strange how the film makers opted to remake the Dunkirk fiasco rather than a British victory - and there were many. Once again we face a Germany dominating Europe. Many of the 28 countries ganging up against us fell victims to German aggression and wouldn't exist if it hadn't been for Britain's solitary stand. This time around, the Germans have not needed to use armed force to boss the show. Europe, or 'the 'Project' as it is described in the inner circles of the unelected Brussels based rulers is already close to creating the Fourth Reich.
