Una Mullally: Bishop skewers British oblivion and Brexit folly

On Saturday, I sat in the chamber of Bradford's City Hall to listen to a discussion titled Brexit: Where Next? I was speaking at another event at the Bradford Literature Festival – founded in 2014, and a complete success story for the city – about the Repeal referendum, an act of democracy that is almost a complete opposite to Brexit in every way, from preparation, education and engagement, to completion.

Bradford was once the richest city in Britain, and it is now one of the most deprived. During the industrial revolution, it was the wool capital of the world. The immigration that fuelled the manufacturing made the city rich. The immigration of Jewish-German business people who organised wool exports, and Irish immigrants from Mayo and Sligo in the mid 19th century who became mill workers, fuelled a booming economy. The city has kept its beauty in many ways, the sandstone buildings and Victorian architecture, but its level of poverty, vacancy rates, and lack of aspiration or tangible path back from the brink sees it framed in many ways as Britain’s Detroit – although that might be a bit harsh. You are more likely to be a victim of crime in West Yorkshire than anywhere else in the UK. The towering Lister’s Mill, once the largest silk factory in the world, and where a strike in 1890 birthed the Independent Labour Party, still dominates its skyline.

We don't know how to look at ourselves through the eyes of anyone else

It’s the youngest city in Europe, with 29 per cent of the population under 20. Youth unemployment is at 26 per cent. Forty thousand (31.8 per cent of) children and young people are living in relative poverty. The demographics of immigration changed, with immigrants from Eastern Europe in the 1950s, and then from Pakistan in the 1960s and 1970s, but the familiar pattern of de-industrialisation left the city scrambling, a chapter that turned darker during the racial rioting in 1995 and 2001. This is Brexit Britain.

Bradford voted to leave the EU 54 per cent to 46. Less than 10 miles away in booming Leeds, the vote to remain scraped through by 2,389 votes at 50.3 per cent. Bradford has three Labour MPs, and in 2014 Labour won 39 per cent of the vote whereas the Conservatives won just 16 per cent. Nearly 27 per cent of the population is British Asian or Asian. Twenty per cent of Bradford’s shops are empty, and the city centre is eerily quiet, save for the brilliant Mirror Pool water fountain which acts as public splash pool with rising and falling water levels depending on the time of day. Even the aftermath of England beating Sweden felt muted on the city’s streets.

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International punch

Back in City Hall, one of the panellists, Owen Greene, a professor of peace studies and international development at the University of Bradford, talked about Britain punching above its weight internationally, about Britain’s “status” in the world, and that for some the idea of being free from the EU gave Britain an opportunity to speak for itself again, whatever that means.

But it was a clergy member on the panel, Nick Baines, the Anglican Bishop of Leeds, who previously worked as a linguist at GCHQ, the British signals intelligence agency, who brought everyone back down to earth and provided the most astute analysis. “We’ve caused the confusion,” he said of Brexit, calling the rhetoric from the Conservative Party, “government by assertion” with rhetoric based in the repetition of slogans, and that in trying to assert one of those slogans – “take back control” – Britain instead just gave a lot of control away. “Facts and reality do not intrude on the discourse,” he said of how Brexit is being spoken about.

British oblivion

The bishop used his experience as a linguist to frame current events. Britain exists on islands, he said, but on continental Europe, the proximity of countries to each other encourages people to learn different languages. When you speak different languages, he said, you have to look at yourself through the eyes of the person you’re speaking to, and examine how you’re communicating, and whether it’s effective. “We don’t know how to look at ourselves through the eyes of anyone else,” he said, and he remarked that that British shortcoming has a tendency to make British people oblivious to how they are seen.

The bishop also cited this issue as one of the reasons the British government has been so bad at negotiating with Europe, as a lack of self-awareness and self-examination means poor negotiating skills, and an inability to see how one’s negotiating behaviour is being perceived. “We have to lose the insularity that makes us think we’re special,” he said, “the empire is gone.”

I turned to the man who posed the question and told him I hoped that he had a fishing rod

I was interested to hear what those in a city that voted Leave wanted to ask the panel. There were questions about the potential in “wooing the commonwealth”, another sentiment harking back to the colonialism that is subconscious, or very conscious indeed, in pro-Brexit quarters.

Towards the end of the discussion, an audience member behind me asked the very simple question of who benefits from Brexit. Jill Rutter from the Institute for Government think tank mentioned what Nigel Farage said about his willingness to pay an economic price if it made him and others happier to be in Britain knowing the nation was out of the EU. Then she started talking about fishermen. Afterwards, I turned to the man who posed the question and told him I hoped that he had a fishing rod. He looked slightly ashen-faced. It’s coming home, alright. To roost.