Britain is leaving the EU at 11pm on Friday 31st January 2020, but that doesn't mean Britain hates Europe. Britain is, after all, IN Europe. It's just the EU it doesn't like...
Coffee House
Don’t worry, Frans, Britain loves Europe back
Fraser Nelson
Fraser Nelson
27 December 2019
The Spectator
As a lifelong Europhile, I rather liked the love letter to Britain from Frans Timmermans, vice president of the new European Commission. We in this country do love Europe, its people, its culture, its quirks, its diversity. Never has Britain been integrated more closely with the rest of Europe, never have we done more trade, never have more Brits lived in Europe and vice versa. The links between our peoples have never been stronger – and, after Brexit, will become stronger still.
The idea of a union of governments, however, was not a model that worked for the UK: that much was decided in a referendum and reinforced in two general elections. It’s nothing personal against Europe or the likes of Timmermans. We just value the ability to elect (or boot out) the people who make our laws. The EU’s ways were, in the end, too much for a Britain that has never confused the EU with Europe. ‘All European nations are unique,’ says Timmermans in his letter. Quite so, and then in seeking to impose uniformity on such a beautifully diverse continent, the EU ended up doing something profoundly un-European – and, as a result, becoming a source of instability in Europe.
‘Was it necessary to force the issue? Not at all. But you did,’ he says. A bit of a stretch. The UK did everything not to force the issue. We have always been one of the most reluctant members of the EU, judging by the European Commission’s own polls – and there is only so long that you can keep a democracy in a club against its will. So we asked for change, for reform, for a renegotiation, to create an EU that would carry greater democratic consent in Britain. That request was rejected. After that then, yes, it became necessary to force the issue.
But that’s all in the past. More importantly, now, when we leave the EU, it won’t be goodbye as Timmermans seems to think. We’ll still be the EU’s biggest single trading partner and, as Theresa May said in Florence, the UK government is also offering to act as the EU’s number one ally, its closest and most powerful friend.
On a practical basis, this means close security co-operation and keeping more in Europe’s diplomatic orbit, than, say, that of the United States. At a time when China is trying to pick apart alliances, it’s important that Europe has the critical mass to resist. With Britain, the EU has as an ally the world’s fifth-largest economy with a similarly powered military. So there are strong incentives all around to complete what remains of Brexit amicably and build a post-Brexit European alliance. That work starts now.
And that work has its opponents. In recent years, the idea of an amicable separation seemed under threat. The EU’s tone was often abrasive: polls show that most Europeans disapproved of the way Brexit talks were handled by Brussels. On our side, too, there certainly are those that would like to think Brexit means breaking away from Europe: the Little Englanders, a marginal force who’d like to pull up the drawbridge. Then we have the Euro federalists, for whom all forms of European co-operation must be done through Brussels, who almost want to see UK-European relations damaged because it would vindicate the Remain cause and serve the Brexiteers right.
But the mainstream voices will be those on both sides of the Channel who want close UK-European relations and recognise that we’re stronger together; but as independent nation states acting together. There are so, so many areas where co-operation is in our mutual interests. When Boris Johnson spoke about building a bridge to France it was this kind of warmer, closer and less antagonistic relation that he had in mind. We have, in him, a Europhile Prime Minister who speaks and reads French; in Michael Gove we have someone whose idea of perfect happiness is listening to Wagner in an airless tent in Bavaria. Dan Hannan’s first speech in Brussels after the Brexit vote was in French, saying that Britain was not walking out on its allies. The Brexiteers were, and remain, a globally-minded lot who are keen to use our retrieved sovereignty to become an even better ally to our European friends and neighbours.
As we know, after Brexit, bonds will continue to deepen. There will be more EU nationals living and working here. More households like mine: my Czech father-in-law, my Swedish wife and my three English children. Modern communications and cheap flights have done more for European integration than anyone in Brussels, and this trend will continue. Bonds of business, friendship, family and love will be ever-easier to forge and maintain. The EU-European relations will continue to deepen. In a way that will have a few more bureaucratic headaches, to be sure. But, importantly, in a way that carries more public consent.
The tiring antagonisms and sterile arguments of the last few decades will soon end; the EU can proceed in whatever way it likes without our moaning – or our threatened veto. The creation of good UK-EU relations will need a lot of thought, patience and diplomatic work, but the prize is worth it. A new era of UK-European friendship and co-operation will soon be about to begin. When the clock strikes 11pm on 31 January, that’s what I will be celebrating.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/12/dont-worry-frans-britain-loves-europe-back/
Coffee House
Don’t worry, Frans, Britain loves Europe back
Fraser Nelson
Fraser Nelson
27 December 2019
The Spectator
As a lifelong Europhile, I rather liked the love letter to Britain from Frans Timmermans, vice president of the new European Commission. We in this country do love Europe, its people, its culture, its quirks, its diversity. Never has Britain been integrated more closely with the rest of Europe, never have we done more trade, never have more Brits lived in Europe and vice versa. The links between our peoples have never been stronger – and, after Brexit, will become stronger still.
The idea of a union of governments, however, was not a model that worked for the UK: that much was decided in a referendum and reinforced in two general elections. It’s nothing personal against Europe or the likes of Timmermans. We just value the ability to elect (or boot out) the people who make our laws. The EU’s ways were, in the end, too much for a Britain that has never confused the EU with Europe. ‘All European nations are unique,’ says Timmermans in his letter. Quite so, and then in seeking to impose uniformity on such a beautifully diverse continent, the EU ended up doing something profoundly un-European – and, as a result, becoming a source of instability in Europe.
‘Was it necessary to force the issue? Not at all. But you did,’ he says. A bit of a stretch. The UK did everything not to force the issue. We have always been one of the most reluctant members of the EU, judging by the European Commission’s own polls – and there is only so long that you can keep a democracy in a club against its will. So we asked for change, for reform, for a renegotiation, to create an EU that would carry greater democratic consent in Britain. That request was rejected. After that then, yes, it became necessary to force the issue.
But that’s all in the past. More importantly, now, when we leave the EU, it won’t be goodbye as Timmermans seems to think. We’ll still be the EU’s biggest single trading partner and, as Theresa May said in Florence, the UK government is also offering to act as the EU’s number one ally, its closest and most powerful friend.
On a practical basis, this means close security co-operation and keeping more in Europe’s diplomatic orbit, than, say, that of the United States. At a time when China is trying to pick apart alliances, it’s important that Europe has the critical mass to resist. With Britain, the EU has as an ally the world’s fifth-largest economy with a similarly powered military. So there are strong incentives all around to complete what remains of Brexit amicably and build a post-Brexit European alliance. That work starts now.
And that work has its opponents. In recent years, the idea of an amicable separation seemed under threat. The EU’s tone was often abrasive: polls show that most Europeans disapproved of the way Brexit talks were handled by Brussels. On our side, too, there certainly are those that would like to think Brexit means breaking away from Europe: the Little Englanders, a marginal force who’d like to pull up the drawbridge. Then we have the Euro federalists, for whom all forms of European co-operation must be done through Brussels, who almost want to see UK-European relations damaged because it would vindicate the Remain cause and serve the Brexiteers right.
But the mainstream voices will be those on both sides of the Channel who want close UK-European relations and recognise that we’re stronger together; but as independent nation states acting together. There are so, so many areas where co-operation is in our mutual interests. When Boris Johnson spoke about building a bridge to France it was this kind of warmer, closer and less antagonistic relation that he had in mind. We have, in him, a Europhile Prime Minister who speaks and reads French; in Michael Gove we have someone whose idea of perfect happiness is listening to Wagner in an airless tent in Bavaria. Dan Hannan’s first speech in Brussels after the Brexit vote was in French, saying that Britain was not walking out on its allies. The Brexiteers were, and remain, a globally-minded lot who are keen to use our retrieved sovereignty to become an even better ally to our European friends and neighbours.
As we know, after Brexit, bonds will continue to deepen. There will be more EU nationals living and working here. More households like mine: my Czech father-in-law, my Swedish wife and my three English children. Modern communications and cheap flights have done more for European integration than anyone in Brussels, and this trend will continue. Bonds of business, friendship, family and love will be ever-easier to forge and maintain. The EU-European relations will continue to deepen. In a way that will have a few more bureaucratic headaches, to be sure. But, importantly, in a way that carries more public consent.
The tiring antagonisms and sterile arguments of the last few decades will soon end; the EU can proceed in whatever way it likes without our moaning – or our threatened veto. The creation of good UK-EU relations will need a lot of thought, patience and diplomatic work, but the prize is worth it. A new era of UK-European friendship and co-operation will soon be about to begin. When the clock strikes 11pm on 31 January, that’s what I will be celebrating.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/12/dont-worry-frans-britain-loves-europe-back/
