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Time to Shrink Britain?
13 December 2011
‘Why not just be an island, with a proud past, a working democracy and a trading partner for the world?’ asks Andrew. This is a good question which neither Europhobes nor Europhiles tend to ask and which, in fact, no politician can directly address. But, ever since I spoke to Norman Davies, I find the shrinkage of Britain – mentally and physically – keeps coming up. The physical shrinkage means, basically, ditching Scotland. Davies thinks this is going to happen anyway; others argue that it should happen, the sooner, the better. We have less and less in common with the Scots, even less after Cameron’s accidental veto, and there is no particular reason why the English should either impose its own sense of identity on these islands or suffer the increasing impatience of the Scots.
The mental shrinkage will be more difficult. The advocates for this argue for a radical isolationism, withdrawing all our troops stationed overseas and avoiding any future international adventures like Iraq or Libya. The English, they say, have lost too much to their deluded and atavistic sense of their place in the world – not least, of course, their identity. Furthermore, this inflated sense of ourselves underpins the old class system based around the City, the public schools, the military, the aristocracy and the monarchy. It is in the self-interest of these institutions to pretend we are still an effective world power.
One argument against this is that it will ruin our trading position. This is dubious and, anyway, our position is already in decline. It is also ludicrously dependent on a high risk and very stupid financial sector which, for some reason, enjoys absolute immunity for prosecution for crimes that, in any other sector and in any decent society, would be punished by very long prison sentences. Osborne and Cameron are plainly too close to these people .
I don’t really know where I stand on the shrinkage of Britain, but I do know I am feeling more English by the day, perhaps in dismay at the lunacies of Europe, the carnage in the Middle East, the threat of war with Iran, the corruption in Russia and so on. But I would like to hear real opposing arguments, not just vagaries about our trading position and our ‘historic’ role in the world.
9 Responses to “Time to Shrink Britain?”
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13 December 2011 at 12:12 pm
I think the lesson to be learned from the crash is that the world both private and public has become over interconnected, thus all we really need to do is pull some of the plugs out, if they have not blown already.
Push government down to the local level and give the plebs the right of veto over spending, this will deal with the size of the state. Central govt. can deal with foreign affairs and defence.
Seems to me you are only seeing one side of the pyramid, the bank side, but the pyramid has a 5th side its base, this is the economic side and this hold the hole thing up, and it was this side that failed first. The pyramid prior to 2000 was able to cope with the forces that it had to hold up, after then 50% worlds of the debt was created. Its the architects and engineers job to point that out and do something about it, Banks and bankers are neither of those.
As I commented here at the time of the crash, ultimately Europe will be the biggest loser, because the drive in all this is not banks and greed, (a banking licence in the fiat/FR system was always a licence to print money) its trade deficits and demographics, and they are hidden in the bottom of the pyramids base.
Maybe you need to retire to South Australia, laze in the sun with a glass of red wine…American river would be the ideal place.
13 December 2011 at 1:39 pm
Well, you know what your friend, James Lovelock, says might happen when things get seriously hot. Lifeboat Britain! Then they won’t leave us alone.
By then we’ll produce better wine than S. Australia (even though no one will be able to afford it) (but I’ll miss the beer).
13 December 2011 at 5:02 pm
Moving from a united Britain to an independent England would be like moving from a detached house to a middle terrace.
Do you really want to share an island with foreigners? Not elegant and sophisticated foreigners with lovely food, but foreigners who are even more lumpen than we are? It would be like being in a lifeboat with a couple of Albanians. Ask your wife to eat an onion, some garlic and a tin of beans, and then both cram yourselves into a small cupboard. See what I mean?
13 December 2011 at 7:46 pm
It’s not just shrinkage, but outright metaphysical dissolution which threatens: the headlines this morning warned that our “High Streets may soon disappear,” opening up the prospect of ontological lacunae strewn across our town and city-scape.
13 December 2011 at 8:35 pm
Should we start digging ?
16 December 2011 at 9:09 am
We should not and cannot isolate ourselves because it’s not in our nature and never has been. Little Englander Tory conservatives are always trumped by globalising Whiggish conservatives. We have the most cosmopolitan capital imaginable and our provinces have absorbed bewildering immigration with neglible racist backlash. Thanks to our exploring, outward-looking nature, our language is spoken across the globe and our sports are played everywhere. Today football matches between teams based in small northern cities are contested by South Americans and Africans and watched on satellite TV by millions of Asians. Despite everything and Iraq, we still helped Libya remove its dictator.
To suggest that our imminent distancing from euro-folly is Little Englander isolation is a complete misreading – we’re drifting apart from Europe because they’re fundamentally inward-looking, protective and frightened of global competition and we’re not. Fog on channel, continent cut off.
Finally, the Union will survive because its proven to be a strong institution over several terrible centuries.
16 December 2011 at 10:32 am
Say what you like about Brit, he knows his onions. Spot on analysis. Impressive for the father of a newborn!
17 December 2011 at 12:33 am
That was poetic Brit.
we’re drifting apart from Europe because they’re fundamentally inward-looking, protective and frightened of global competition
What concerns me is that frightened people are dangerous. They’re liable to lash out.
7 February 2012 at 4:07 pm
Finally britain is doing with europe what scotland has been trying to do with england for centuries. Independence is a freedom right.