The foreign secretary betrayed this sense of nostalgia when criticising Brussels’ conduct over Brexit. “Without a real change in approach from the EU negotiators we do now face a real risk of a no deal by accident and that would be incredibly challenging economically,” he warned, adding that the British people would blame the EU for this and it “would change [their] attitudes to Europe for a generation”. So there he is, a Tory cabinet minister, saying that British problems are the EU’s fault. Just once more, for old times’ sake? [...]
We’re witnessing the end of a way of life. For decades, our political leaders, both Tories and Labour, have been able to blame things that went wrong, things they failed to do, anything that seemed unfairly constraining, or frighteningly liberating, on the Brussels bureaucrats. Anything that smacked of globalisation and corporate power, but also anything that seemed overly statist and controlling, anything that was bad for business and anything that left the individual citizen too exposed. Put simply: anything. [...]
This is why, despite the stratospheric importance of the question of whether or not Britain is in the EU – not just in terms of economics and geopolitics but of the hearts, minds and self-image of millions of Britons – the two main parties haven’t fought a general election on the issue for over 30 years. They’ve argued endlessly about privatisation and NHS funding and tuition fees and foxhunting and MPs’ expenses, but they’ve both avoided the main problem, this colossal, festering unresolved question and left it as a personal matter for individual members. That’s like having decades of religious debate in the 16th century between two groups both of which refuse to say whether they’re Catholic or Protestant.
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