Brexit Day: parting is such sweet sorrow

Brexit Day has come: for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. When Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1972, the British (measured by GDP per capita) were poorer than the French and derided as “the sick man of Europe”. The British leave the larger European Union richer than the French, with an economy in robust health. 

The United Kingdom, then, has undoubtedly prospered during our half century inside the EU. Will we prosper outside it? The answer, without a shadow of a doubt, is yes. 

The phrase “global Britain” now bandied about is fatuous: Britain has never ceased to be “global”, whether in our trading links or our cultural influence. There will be a reorientation from the Continent towards the other continents, but it will be gradual and at first imperceptible. 

Whatever else Brexit may mean, it certainly does not mean that the British will cut themselves off from Europe. We have indeed become much more European during our time as EU members. Soon after the war, Churchill put it like this: “We are with Europe, but not of it.” Today, it might be more accurate to say: “We are of Europe, but not with it.”

Yet though Britain will no longer have a seat at the council tables in Brussels, our presence will still be felt. For most Europeans, that presence has been and will continue to be benign. Just as we have not always sided with the rest of the EU, so now we will seldom be against our former partners. 

Ours has been the voice of practical rather than pure reason and Europe will still need to hear it, albeit from outside rather than within. The European Union was always in thrall to a Cartesian rationalist project, fiercely resistant to les Anglo-Saxons and our empire of empiricism. Now that Brexit has finally happened, these two visions of Western civilisation can thrive in peaceful co-existence. By now it is to be hoped that each has learned a great deal from the other.

However cordial our future entente, however, Britain and the EU will be in competition. As Angela Merkel has repeatedly warned her compatriots, freed of the dead hand of Brussels, the British will be tough competitors for the Germans. She wants Berlin to grow into a new Silicon Valley to replace the old industries that made the Federal Republic the motor of Europe. But that will only happen if the tech startups that now flourish in the German capital remain connected, as if by an invisible umbilical cord, to the mother ship in London.

London, indeed, is the key to the future UK-EU relationship. The free trade deal that ought to be rapidly agreed in the coming months will have to address the future role of London as Europe’s unofficial economic capital. Too many EU citizens have voted with their feet to set up shop here for a punitive policy towards this ancient Roman port to make any sense. Rather, there should be generosity on both sides: as close as possible to free movement for Europeans in return for continued access to the EU for the City.

There are bound to be various forms of friction in the years to come. That was implicit in the 2016 referendum and the tensions that led up to it over at least 30 years. But friction is not the same as enmity. Once we have got over the trauma of separation, Britain and Europe will rub along together quite well.

There will need to be a conscious effort on the part of the British to rebuild cultural relationships on a bilateral basis. With the wealthier nations of Western Europe, this requires little more than goodwill on both sides. With the poorer EU members that have emerged from Communist tyranny, by contrast, the British will now have the opportunity to offer modest but carefully targeted help, supported by DFID, in developing democratic institutions and the rule of law. Done sensitively and in co-operation with the EU, such initiatives could still make a contribution to the peace and prosperity of Europe.

By coincidence, this is the 300th leading article to appear here since TheArticle was launched well over a year ago. It is a matter of pride that this column has run in an almost unbroken series at breakfast time, every weekday. Dictated by events, it has at times become a running commentary on Britain’s tortuous path to independence. Now that day has arrived at last.

It is time to bid our Continental friends farewell, adieu, lebewohl. This is no time for bitter words, but for the words of the greatest of Europe’s poets: Shakespeare. As Romeo says to Juliet, “Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” This parting has gone on quite long enough. There will be many a morrow for the offshore islanders and the mainland to write a new chapter in the unending chronicle of our history together.