Sir, – Your headline “Britain leaves European Union not with a bang but with a whimper” (January 31st) and the accompanying editorial present an ungenerous and cynical analysis, laced with bitter exasperation of Brexit. There is no even-handedness in the treatment of what is a seismic historic event. Instead, you resort to jibes, from denigrating British prime minister Boris Johnson’s economic plans to revitalise the UK regions as right-wing “economic populism”, to describing the democratic decision of voters as “a massive act of self-harm”. The British people, our neighbours, see it rather differently – and surely that is the more important point.
The dire warnings of the British and the Irish establishment of the economic catastrophe that would ensue from the UK reclaiming its independence from an EU grown far too autocratic were just plain wrong. It did not persuade voters. Those same establishments, even now, cannot countenance the reverse that Brexit represents to the unbounded federalism of the EU. That does not bode well for its ability to engage in the kind of reforms that are necessary to make the EU more democratic, less unequal and sustainable in the medium term.
There is no acknowledgement of the scale of Mr Johnson’s achievements: winning, against all the odds, a record endorsement from voters tired of prevarication and obstructionism, or of delivering them – and the Irish economy – from the mayhem of a Corbyn-led Marxist government.
The lack of empathy with the decision of the UK to reassert its sovereignty is palpable. This is perhaps strange. Because it was a memorable editorial in The Irish Times less than a decade ago which pointed out: “A nation’s independence is defined by the choices it can make for itself”. It went on to point out that “the desire to be a sovereign people runs like a seam through all of the struggles of the last 200 years”. The choice made by the voters of the UK – not without differences – was to affirm this same sovereignty.
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The rebuilding of political and economic relationships post-Brexit will require, especially in the context of Northern Ireland, a respect for the UK’s decision which is notably absent from your analysis. That is a matter of some importance to our national interests. It merits a greater importance in the calculus of your coverage. With the UK, with whom we share vital economic interests, now left, Ireland will be marginalised in a EU which is anxious to move on from Brexit to more pressing issues. In truth, for all of the whistling into the wind, we will be peripheral to the agenda of other, larger and more powerful countries. – Yours, etc,
RAY KINSELLA,
Ashford, Co Wicklow.