Our country is a stable land with a belief in democracy. We have not been invaded for 1,000 years.
We have never swooned for a dictator. And we have forgotten how very lucky we are in the UK.
But there is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right. And it is a betrayal of Brexit.
TONY PARSONS Merk my words: Betraying Brexit means violence and extremism for the UK
Unlike Germany, the UK has never been a nation where *extremism has flourished, but there is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right - and it is a betrayal of Brexit
Comment
By Tony Parsons, Sun on Sunday Columnist
7th October 2018
The Sun on Sunday
A LAME duck leader, an exhausted ruling party and a bitterly divided nation desperately uncertain about its identity and future.
And I am not talking about the UK. Welcome to Germany.
Make no mistake, Germany is drifting into very dangerous waters - as the anti-migrant riots in Chemnitz showed
We are constantly told that Brexit Britain is a divided country, increasingly racist and xenophobic, drifting up history’s creek without a paddle.
But the problems that currently afflict the UK are nothing compared with what is happening in Germany.
Goodness knows that Theresa May has her problems.
But the troubles of Theresa are nothing compared with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is enduring within her unhappy country and ragbag coalition government.
After 13 years as German Chancellor and the most powerful politician in Europe, Angela Merkel is on the skids due to her open-door immigration policy
After 13 years as German Chancellor and the most powerful politician in Europe, Mutti Merkel is on the skids.
Support for her CDU party is dwindling. And support for Merkel within her own party is vanishing.
Last year she faced huge losses in Germany’s election and cobbled together a fragile coalition government. Last month she faced an unprecedented rebellion from her own MPs when they voted down her choice for leader of their parliamentary group. And last week Bild, Germany’s biggest selling newspaper asked: “Can Merkel still be Chancellor?”
Angela Merkel makes Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho look like he has a job for life.
Many of Germany’s ills — from soaring crime rates to riots in the old East Germany to the rise of the extreme Right — are widely blamed on Merkel.
Riots hit the old East Germany after a Syrian man and an Iraqi man were arrested for stabbing 35-year-old Cuban-German Daniel Hillig to death in Chemnitz
Many Germans across the political divide believe that Merkel got it catastrophically wrong when she threw open Germany’s borders in 2015. According to figures released in April by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office, more than 1.6million people have sought asylum in Germany since 2014, mainly from the Middle East and Africa.
Mutti’s decision to enable that scale of immigration will echo through German society long after she is pushing up edelweiss.
For make no mistake, Germany is drifting into very dangerous waters.
We hear a lot about the rise of racism in Brexit Britain.
But we have seen nothing like the riots that hit the old East Germany after a Syrian man and an Iraqi man were arrested for stabbing a 35-year-old Cuban-German to death in Chemnitz.
Theresa May's troubles are nothing compared with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is enduring within her unhappy country and ragbag coalition government
Britain has seen nothing like the Nazi salutes that are making a comeback in Germany. And Britain has nothing like the rise of Alternative For Germany, a booming right-wing populist party that is well outside the political mainstream.
And here is the crucial difference between the UK and Germany.
The British do not have a tradition of extremism. The Germans do.
Germany is a country – for all its affluence, for all its liberal values, for all its nice, polite, well-educated, hard-working *people with their good beer and tasty sausages — that lives in the shadow of the horrors of its past.
And the more time I spend in Germany, the more I believe that Angela Merkel has already built the foundations for a return of the extreme right in Germany.
I don’t know if Merkel’s enabling of the far-right means simply more skinhead thugs flashing Nazi salutes or, God forbid, a very different kind of German government from the past.
We’re forgotten how very lucky we are
But change is coming to Germany, caused by Merkel changing the identity of this country without consulting the German people.
Unlike Germany, the UK has never been a nation where extremism has flourished.
Even now, in the middle of the Brexit chaos, it seems unthinkable that Jeremy Corbyn could actually enter 10 Downing Street and form a rabidly Marxist government that would destroy our economy.
And even now, with Theresa May clinging to the leaky lifebelt of her Chequers plan, it seems unthinkable that our tolerant, welcoming country could descend into the racist xenophobic nation that was forecast by the doom-mongers of Project Fear.
There is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right. And it is a betrayal of Brexit
Our country is a stable land with a belief in democracy. We have not been invaded for 1,000 years.
We have never swooned for a dictator. And we have forgotten how very lucky we are in the UK.
But there is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right. And it is a betrayal of Brexit.
Boris Johnson got this correct. If Brexit is betrayed — if the vote of 17.4million people is rendered meaningless — then our democracy will be damaged forever.
If the will of the people means nothing, then you will see a nation that is forced to violent extremes.
That is happening in Germany today. Betray Brexit, and it will happen in the UK tomorrow.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7436071/betraying-brexit-violence-extremism-uk/
We have never swooned for a dictator. And we have forgotten how very lucky we are in the UK.
But there is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right. And it is a betrayal of Brexit.
TONY PARSONS Merk my words: Betraying Brexit means violence and extremism for the UK
Unlike Germany, the UK has never been a nation where *extremism has flourished, but there is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right - and it is a betrayal of Brexit
Comment
By Tony Parsons, Sun on Sunday Columnist
7th October 2018
The Sun on Sunday
A LAME duck leader, an exhausted ruling party and a bitterly divided nation desperately uncertain about its identity and future.
And I am not talking about the UK. Welcome to Germany.
Make no mistake, Germany is drifting into very dangerous waters - as the anti-migrant riots in Chemnitz showedWe are constantly told that Brexit Britain is a divided country, increasingly racist and xenophobic, drifting up history’s creek without a paddle.
But the problems that currently afflict the UK are nothing compared with what is happening in Germany.
Goodness knows that Theresa May has her problems.
But the troubles of Theresa are nothing compared with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is enduring within her unhappy country and ragbag coalition government.
After 13 years as German Chancellor and the most powerful politician in Europe, Angela Merkel is on the skids due to her open-door immigration policy
After 13 years as German Chancellor and the most powerful politician in Europe, Mutti Merkel is on the skids.
Support for her CDU party is dwindling. And support for Merkel within her own party is vanishing.
Last year she faced huge losses in Germany’s election and cobbled together a fragile coalition government. Last month she faced an unprecedented rebellion from her own MPs when they voted down her choice for leader of their parliamentary group. And last week Bild, Germany’s biggest selling newspaper asked: “Can Merkel still be Chancellor?”
Angela Merkel makes Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho look like he has a job for life.
Many of Germany’s ills — from soaring crime rates to riots in the old East Germany to the rise of the extreme Right — are widely blamed on Merkel.
Riots hit the old East Germany after a Syrian man and an Iraqi man were arrested for stabbing 35-year-old Cuban-German Daniel Hillig to death in ChemnitzMany Germans across the political divide believe that Merkel got it catastrophically wrong when she threw open Germany’s borders in 2015. According to figures released in April by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office, more than 1.6million people have sought asylum in Germany since 2014, mainly from the Middle East and Africa.
Mutti’s decision to enable that scale of immigration will echo through German society long after she is pushing up edelweiss.
For make no mistake, Germany is drifting into very dangerous waters.
We hear a lot about the rise of racism in Brexit Britain.
But we have seen nothing like the riots that hit the old East Germany after a Syrian man and an Iraqi man were arrested for stabbing a 35-year-old Cuban-German to death in Chemnitz.
Theresa May's troubles are nothing compared with what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is enduring within her unhappy country and ragbag coalition government
Britain has seen nothing like the Nazi salutes that are making a comeback in Germany. And Britain has nothing like the rise of Alternative For Germany, a booming right-wing populist party that is well outside the political mainstream.
And here is the crucial difference between the UK and Germany.
The British do not have a tradition of extremism. The Germans do.
Germany is a country – for all its affluence, for all its liberal values, for all its nice, polite, well-educated, hard-working *people with their good beer and tasty sausages — that lives in the shadow of the horrors of its past.
And the more time I spend in Germany, the more I believe that Angela Merkel has already built the foundations for a return of the extreme right in Germany.
I don’t know if Merkel’s enabling of the far-right means simply more skinhead thugs flashing Nazi salutes or, God forbid, a very different kind of German government from the past.
We’re forgotten how very lucky we are
But change is coming to Germany, caused by Merkel changing the identity of this country without consulting the German people.
Unlike Germany, the UK has never been a nation where extremism has flourished.
Even now, in the middle of the Brexit chaos, it seems unthinkable that Jeremy Corbyn could actually enter 10 Downing Street and form a rabidly Marxist government that would destroy our economy.
And even now, with Theresa May clinging to the leaky lifebelt of her Chequers plan, it seems unthinkable that our tolerant, welcoming country could descend into the racist xenophobic nation that was forecast by the doom-mongers of Project Fear.
There is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right. And it is a betrayal of Brexit
Our country is a stable land with a belief in democracy. We have not been invaded for 1,000 years.
We have never swooned for a dictator. And we have forgotten how very lucky we are in the UK.
But there is something that could push our people to the vicious extremes of the far-left and far-right. And it is a betrayal of Brexit.
Boris Johnson got this correct. If Brexit is betrayed — if the vote of 17.4million people is rendered meaningless — then our democracy will be damaged forever.
If the will of the people means nothing, then you will see a nation that is forced to violent extremes.
That is happening in Germany today. Betray Brexit, and it will happen in the UK tomorrow.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7436071/betraying-brexit-violence-extremism-uk/
