No Room for Jingoism

Just four days after Article 50 was triggered by the Prime Minister, a former leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, has declared cheerfully that Mrs May would be prepared to go to war to keep Gibraltar British, just as Margaret Thatcher did over the Falklands. It is hard to imagine a more provocative and inane statement at a time when the British government is preparing to enter negotiations with our current 27 EU partners to leave the European Union. In last year’s EU Referendum, the people of Gibraltar voted almost unanimously for the UK to stay in the Union, as they realise that their position is more secure vis-a-vis Spain that way. Leaving the EU will put them once more into a vulnerable position which could see them being blockaded by Spain as the frontier with Spain will become an EU external border. As if that were not bad enough, threatening possible military action over Gibraltar is a red rag to a bull to the fiercely proud Spanish. Moreover, it gives the impression that Britain has learnt nothing from its four decades of EU membership and how the EU has helped resolve contentious issues peacefully on a continent previously torn asunder by wars.

What makes Lord Howard’s inept intervention even more serious, however, is that leading Conservatives, cheered on by UKIP and the Brexit Press, have been adopting an increasingly jingoistic tone more characteristic of the 19th century than of the 21st. There have been calls to efface every trace of the EU in Britain, including going back to old-fashioned blue UK passports. There have even been demands in some quarters to return to imperial measures, even though metrification pre-dated our entry into the EU. Foreigners are meanwhile increasingly coming under verbal and even physical attack from the more extreme elements in British society. No wonder thousands of EU nationals have already started leaving the country, even though Britain will remain a member of the EU for another two years. Far from standing up to this wave of unpleasant nationalism and jingoism, Theresa May is riding it, championing her red, white and blue Brexit and hammering on about Britain being different. She is increasingly delusional and dangerous, frankly, and if she and her Tory colleagues carry on in this belligerent and bigoted fashion she will alienate our closest friends, the other EU nations, and ensure that Brexit is an unmitigated disaster.