A Faraway Country of Which We Know Little

It may seem odd that many British people want leave the EU, but to a Brit living in the Czech Republic it comes as no surprise. The low quality of the Brexit debate shows that for too many Brits, Europe is still a strange and distant place.

The outcome of the British EU membership referendum is likely to come down to a few key factors: the weather (which affects voter turnout), the registration of young voters (who are less likely to vote but more likely to vote to remain), whether Boris Johnson can reign in his ego (and stop comparing the EU to Hitler’s project to “unite Europe”), and which way the country’s corrupt media Barons tell their newspapers to lean.

To steal a phrase from Neville Chamberlain, “how horrible, how fantastic, incredible” it is that such an important issue, which could see one of the most populous and potentially powerful European countries leave the world’s most exclusive and desirable political club, should be at the mercy of such superficial and arbitrary considerations.

For any Czechs and others still in thrall to the UK as the cradle of modern democracy or as an example of an independent voice to look up to in Europe, this state of affairs may come as a something of a shock. For me, however, having grown up in the UK but spent most of my adult life on the continent and most of my career working in the study or practice of politics and government, including for the EU, it comes as no surprise.

Standing Alone

Chamberlain’s famous words about a “faraway country”(see footnote) will be all too familiar to many Czechs. The bitter taste of the Munich betrayal still lingers nearly 80 years after the First Republic was sacrificed on the altar of the British Prime Minister’s illusory promise of “peace in our time.” Despite being among the victors, the war that followed not only laid waste to Europe, but also heralded a time of great uncertainty for the UK.

As the Brexit referendum approaches, Dean Acheson’s astute observation that Britain had “lost an empire but not yet found a role” sadly remains as true today as it was in 1962. Britain’s wartime legacy continues to play a role in this confusion, mainly through the misguided lesson that the country can ‘stand alone’ in the world, as it likes to think it did against Hitler’s Reich in 1940. This of course discounts the role played by the (then welcome) Czechs, Poles and others who fought on after their country was conquered as well as the UK’s ability to exploit the resources, human and otherwise, of its empire.