29 Aug, 2019
Nationalism is a crime against humanity
London4Europe member Philip Mansel publishes an open letter to Dominic Cummings, the mastermind of the Leave campaign who is now a senior advisor to the Prime Minister in Downing street:
Dear Dominic Cummings,
You consider it a ‘point of honour’ for the UK to leave the EU by November. Brexit brings dishonour. It destroys the United Kingdom and its constitution by placing the government above parliament, alienating Scotland and much of Northern Ireland, as well as the EU, and tying British politics to one referendum held three years ago. Moreover nobody voted for a no-deal Brexit.
In an age of global warming, global companies, and species extinctions, national sovereignty makes no sense. The UK is not ‘taking back control’, but handing control to the US and gobal companies. The UK had more control through its share in EU decisions than as a separate state. Zuckerberg went to Brussels, not Westminster. The EU is more global than the UK. Most of its inhabitants speak two languages, their own and English; most British speak one.
Nationalism kills. Brexit has already led to death threats and a political murder. Its toxic nature is confirmed by Trump and Putin’s support for it. To trust Trump to give the UK a decent trade deal is insane. What Josephine Tey, a Gaelic-speaking Scot, wrote of Scottish nationalism, applies to English nationalism: ‘What you are doing is a sin, a crime. A crime against humanity and civilization. You are rousing hatreds that were sleeping, that would have died in their sleep. ..You rake up old injustices, you invent new ones. You distort history as you please. I love my country as much as any of you. But I’m not blinded by flag waving or doped by cheap sentiment. I don’t cheer when some fool tells me we are the salt of the earth.’
A second and final referendum, in which British residents abroad can also vote, is the best solution.
Brexit wrecks it.
Yours sincerely
Philip Mansel
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