Here’s a challenge – can you come up with 12 Benefits of Brexit, one for each of the Twelve Nights of Christmas?
In this land of three-word slogans, we are now “an independent coastal state” – or perhaps more realistically – “a highly dependant, offshore landmass.” We are all in it together…
The social media channels are often full of exhortations for the pro-Brexit camp to highlight the benefits of Brexit, which are often (although not always) met with a wall of silence. Occasionally, a few rational reasons are put forward (and there are indeed some).
In other cases, the answer is provided in the form of a rant, such as this appalling example which appeared just before Christmas in the Daily Telegraph. Written by Alexandra Phillips, a former member of the Brexit Party and now part of the Reform Party, “The EU never has been benign and benevolent,” we are told, as she conjures up images of “frothing Guy, triumphantly banging the desk.”
As the clock ticks down, we are told that “threats to Gibraltar and a food blockade have shattered the delusion that Brussels is a benevolent institution.” Phillips talks of “taped conspiratorial insinuations of Barnier wargaming the fragile Good Friday Peace Agreement, [that] should render any self-respecting nation united in the conviction that leaving the horror bloc is not just preferable, but the only sane choice.”
Well, we all have our own views…..“I see it differently,” as the recently retired rugby referee Nigel Owens might say to towering forwards questioning an on-field decision!
One could even argue that, if the EU were the evil institution that Phillips claims, then who on earth would think it a good idea to poke the hornets’ nest with a stick, or travel to its Parliament and turn their backs on its anthem? This, when our economy was ticking along just nicely, thank you!
Perhaps it is also worth looking at Brexit from the other side of the borders of which we are taking control.
One Irish social media correspondent came up with the following list:
- The EU27 don’t have to put up with the arrogance, petulance and entitlement of the UK
- With the UK out of the EU it removes a major obstacle in the path to Federal Europe
- Although the pain will be hard to begin with it is a long-term chance for Ireland to become less dependent on the UK
- It will give Brexiters the opportunity to enjoy the miserable, poverty-stricken shi’thole they yearn for
- Fewer Brits in lovely European cities
- Other countries can benefit from the skills and investment that would otherwise head to the UK
- There is a great chance for Paris, Dublin, Frankfurt etc to seize much of London’s banking business
- Ditto for pharma, add Amsterdam
- Dublin can become the English business language bridge between the rest of the world and the European Union
- The English can spend 50 years of misery pondering that that they no longer have an empire
- Independence for Scotland
- An United Ireland
As they might say on Desert Island Discs, if you could choose only one, which would it be? And which luxury would you choose for your time on Brexit Island?
Or do you have ideas of your own? Let us know at editor@kentbylines.co.uk
