Its impolite to say this but #BlackLivesMatter & Brexit are more intimately connected than people want to admit publicly.
Indeed while there’s no doubt UK needs to properly examine its past - it is a Brexit present which will, indeed has, pour petrol on the flames.
A thread.
Indeed while there’s no doubt UK needs to properly examine its past - it is a Brexit present which will, indeed has, pour petrol on the flames.
A thread.
2/
There are many reasons why Brexit & #BLM are connected - the most obvious one is that Brexit is not really about trade or in reality even Europe that much - it’s about a “national narrative”.
Brexit is fed by resentment at liberal “elites” who “hold down Britain”.
There are many reasons why Brexit & #BLM are connected - the most obvious one is that Brexit is not really about trade or in reality even Europe that much - it’s about a “national narrative”.
Brexit is fed by resentment at liberal “elites” who “hold down Britain”.
3/
Post WWII the country basically rewrote its past - let’s be honest everyone does it at some point - we venerated “our” fight against fascism & tried to forget about empire - indeed when we thought about it we made funny films about it.
This was useful.
& in many ways wise.
Post WWII the country basically rewrote its past - let’s be honest everyone does it at some point - we venerated “our” fight against fascism & tried to forget about empire - indeed when we thought about it we made funny films about it.
This was useful.
& in many ways wise.
4/
“Our WWII” pleased the left - it was anti fascist.
& pleased the right - “we won” (nation, king & army).
Of course Churchill was a racist. We more or less all were. You don’t run an enmpire believing in equality!
We then discovered post modernism & made fun of our empire..
“Our WWII” pleased the left - it was anti fascist.
& pleased the right - “we won” (nation, king & army).
Of course Churchill was a racist. We more or less all were. You don’t run an enmpire believing in equality!
We then discovered post modernism & made fun of our empire..
5/
“Our WWII” was a myth - but with enough truth to see us right - we could become a normal European country and get down to arguing about taxes & schools.
But deep down there was something lurking..
“Our WWII” was a myth - but with enough truth to see us right - we could become a normal European country and get down to arguing about taxes & schools.
But deep down there was something lurking..
6/
So long as we were happy to laugh at ourselves & accept our modern place - we’d be fine.
But what if some tried to feed off our distant memories of “greatness”? That really everything happened since 1945 was not a lucky escape from empire into normality but a humiliation..
So long as we were happy to laugh at ourselves & accept our modern place - we’d be fine.
But what if some tried to feed off our distant memories of “greatness”? That really everything happened since 1945 was not a lucky escape from empire into normality but a humiliation..
7/
Europeans who were oft richer than us - don’t they know who we were (are)?
..we know where that led...but something else - if our past was no longer “another country” but a glorious inheritance denied to us where does this place the empire?
Europeans who were oft richer than us - don’t they know who we were (are)?
..we know where that led...but something else - if our past was no longer “another country” but a glorious inheritance denied to us where does this place the empire?
8/
If one rejects the present “thrust on us against our will” - where does one go - but to the past?
Brexiters have made a few attempts at “our best chapter yet to be written” stuff - but no one really believes it.
So it’s the past we go.
If one rejects the present “thrust on us against our will” - where does one go - but to the past?
Brexiters have made a few attempts at “our best chapter yet to be written” stuff - but no one really believes it.
So it’s the past we go.
9/
So a cultural movement to wallow & even recreate a past. A past before EU, before mass immigration, before UK was just another country - how do you do this?
You can’t.
So you do the next best thing.
You fight a war against all those that tell you that you can’t.
So a cultural movement to wallow & even recreate a past. A past before EU, before mass immigration, before UK was just another country - how do you do this?
You can’t.
So you do the next best thing.
You fight a war against all those that tell you that you can’t.
10/
Not a literal war.
A 21st century war.
A culture war.
& very soon the very same pepppe who laughed at monty python 10 years previously..started to believe in buccaneering Britain led by a naughty schoolboy quoting Kipling talking of Africans with watermelon smiles...
Not a literal war.
A 21st century war.
A culture war.
& very soon the very same pepppe who laughed at monty python 10 years previously..started to believe in buccaneering Britain led by a naughty schoolboy quoting Kipling talking of Africans with watermelon smiles...
11/
But here’s the point:
You can’t believe in Brexit without believing in some manifest specialness of Britain. But last 300 years that’s been empire.
So while it’s not true you have to be racist to be pro Brexit..
....it’s almost impossible to be pro Brexit and anti Empire..
But here’s the point:
You can’t believe in Brexit without believing in some manifest specialness of Britain. But last 300 years that’s been empire.
So while it’s not true you have to be racist to be pro Brexit..
....it’s almost impossible to be pro Brexit and anti Empire..
12/
Here’s the next problem.
In good times UK can tackle its past - but how can it tackle its past when it has now pushed itself into a position of glorifying it?
2 options:
1. Return to normality
2. Double down on culture war
Here’s the next problem.
In good times UK can tackle its past - but how can it tackle its past when it has now pushed itself into a position of glorifying it?
2 options:
1. Return to normality
2. Double down on culture war
13/
Where does this end?
No idea.
But i humbly suggest that encouraing people’s identy in the glorification of an empire that enslaved the ancestors of their immediate neighbours is an inherently dangerous path to go down.
Where does this end?
No idea.
But i humbly suggest that encouraing people’s identy in the glorification of an empire that enslaved the ancestors of their immediate neighbours is an inherently dangerous path to go down.
14/
...but I suspect today there are many conservatives who secretly wish we’d just stayed making fun of ourselves, being a normal European country and left the empire to academics...
...and quietly tipped Edward Colston into the sea - where he belongs - years ago.
/ends
...but I suspect today there are many conservatives who secretly wish we’d just stayed making fun of ourselves, being a normal European country and left the empire to academics...
...and quietly tipped Edward Colston into the sea - where he belongs - years ago.
/ends
*people obviously! 😉
ADD+1
This may be #BlackLivesMattters on the surface - but deeper down it’s a fight for the national narrative.
I’m as happy to laugh at “over woke lefties” as I am about “crusty Conservatives” but there’s something far more visceral going on here.
The empire narrative is back.
This may be #BlackLivesMattters on the surface - but deeper down it’s a fight for the national narrative.
I’m as happy to laugh at “over woke lefties” as I am about “crusty Conservatives” but there’s something far more visceral going on here.
The empire narrative is back.
