Open letter to British friends from a bemused European. Egmont Commentary 18 March 2021.

Cloos, Jim (2021) Open letter to British friends from a bemused European. Egmont Commentary 18 March 2021. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The Brexit debate and its attendant propaganda started almost from the day the British joined the EU. Remember the referendum in 1975, two years after joining, the funny articles from Boris Johnson and many others and the daily drip drip of derision, scorn and even hatred descending upon Brussels. Remember the key role played by Rupert Murdoch in all of this (so much for sovereignty!). The media are probably the main reason why the dissatisfaction of so many people in western democracies took on this particular form in Britain. People are as dissatisfied in France and elsewhere as they are in Britain, if not more so, but they do not see the EU as the sole or even the major cause of their problems. I am curious to see what will happen in a few years in Britain when the EU has disappeared as the ideal culprit for everything going wrong. If it ever stops being used as one, that is. This open letter arises from an exchange with British and Canadian friends following an article published by Jeremy Kinsman, former Canadian Ambassador to the EU. It takes up and responds to points made in the course of this exchange.

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