A vote for Brexit is a vote to have a something of our own. So, interestingly, said a (British) friend to me last week as we discussed the referendum, with him somewhat sympathetic to the out cause. He went on that the challenge for the British was that we no longer had anything that was special about us; that was just ours. We did not, for example, even have our own language – a language that we had that no one else did. A vote to be independent was a vote to have something that was ours and not shared.
This thought echoed during the past weekend spent in Copenhagen. Everyone with whom my wife and I had to deal spoke fantastic English; the hotel receptionist, the taxi driver, the waiter, the woman to whom I apologised after having inadvertently knocked while passing on a narrow pavement: “No problem”. The most trailered forthcoming programme on Danish TV was, as far as we could see, live coverage of the forthcoming FA Cup Final. On another continent, my little boy has, at his school in Bangkok, the chance to train with the Chelsea football academy.
Alongside our language and Association Football (and most other global sports), so much of our culture is shared. Shakespeare is the only global playwright. Our popular music is everywhere. You hear Adele on all continents. London is now clearly only geographically British. You could add the Royal Family to this. They are ours in some sense but only so far. The Queen sees herself as head of the Commonwealth. And they are global celebrities in a way that is not true of other royal families.
And this took my friend and I to the temperamental heart of the referendum debate. It is about how we feel and what we want to be. It is a question of identity. There is not a bigoted bone in my friend’s body (he happily grew up on the continent) but he likes the idea of a world comprised of distinct identities living together. My dream would seem to be of a more singular global identity; a global identity, I would add, comfortably containing lots of our DNA.
Where my friend and I agreed was that the long-term economics is a sideshow. We are going to be a lucky, rich and productive economy whether we choose to stay or go. I would argue that there are significant and needless short-term costs and risks associated with departure. His retort is that there may be, or may not be, but, regardless, it won’t make a difference in the long run and, anyway, is a modest price to pay.
The Oblique View 