For many, Brexit was such an exception. Ignoring, for a moment, the argument that many voters dismissed economic warnings as political blathering, Britain’s choice to leave the EU (or vote to do so) represented a rare moment in which visions of the future were filled with something more than dollar signs. The result shocked not only the nation, but the world – it was a rare moment of defiance, and a break in the order of things...
Read MoreYes, there is something so familiar about our two nations that the Britain has often been unfairly designated as the 51st state. And yet, like the modern dysfunctional family, it’s hard to admit that we have anything more than blood in common. At least as far as Britain goes, we’re unnerved by the likeness, even a tad ashamed and embarrassed that our younger sibling has gone off to become more successful, and only comes home to gleefully ram our faces into it...
Like the legendary Batman Villain Two-Face, there are two halves to Britain’s new identity that are at desperate odds with each other. Younger generations grew up listening to the rhetoric describing Britain as a great, multi-cultural society. After the fall of communism in 1989, the 1990s saw an influx of Polish immigrants, in no small part owing to our need to rectify a labour shortage. Regardless of the motives, there was a light to this openness, styled as an international beauty with the world viewing Britain as a progressive and tolerant society...
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We set out knowing who we were. Bobbing along calm currents, the horizon held promise: known seas, established trade routes brimming with pioneering vessels and a world of foreign and exotic destinations at our finger tips. Our friends even told us who we were; we were Britain, and we mattered. Now lost in this darkness, only the beating tide keeps our company, and brother turns on brother in matters of blame...
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In the throngs of globalisation, the British mentality is suspended in a continuous tug of war. At some point, we were meant to become more than just British, but we missed the cue. We have a self-affirming history of greatness and strength, and the words of Shakespeare and Churchill ring in our ears to remind us of our unique circumstance and character, an egotism that was, perhaps, never truly justified to begin with...
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