Enough time has passed for a calm personal assessment on the implications of Brexit. If I were British, I would have voted for my country to remain a member of the EU even if my judgement of the present EU governance is far from positive. But I respect fully the choice of the majority of British people who believe that they will be better off outside the EU.
I do not think that the consequences of Brexit will be as dramatic as claimed by sections of the media and so-called experts. Britain is a resourceful and creative country that will find ways of coping with new political circumstances. I fear more the consequences for the rest of the EU.
The Brussels bureaucracy is out of touch with the lives of millions of hard-pressed Europeans. For EU bureaucrats the gravy train is all that matters. Landing a job in Brussels, Frankfurt, Strasbourg or Luxembourg with hefty salaries is for them more important than understanding why millions of people struggle to find a job, while millions of helpless migrants flood Europe at a time when EU politicians have no strategy on how to prevent this seemingly unstoppable inflow from breaking the social fabrics of so many societies.
The EU needs to start dismantling some of its expensive structures and use the proceeds to help ordinary people find jobs and feel safer in their communities. I would start by halving the number of MEPs in the European Parliament that many see as an ineffective talking shop for politicians who are either well past it, or wannabes who have ambitions to one day becoming big heads in their own country. Brussels also needs to be less obsessed with regulation and more passionate about creating economic growth and jobs to protect the interests of young people and ordinary families.
The biggest achievement of the EU in the past several decades has been its ability to keep former European warmongering nations at peace with each other, discussing problems around a table rather than invading each other’s territories. Another achievement is the general improvement in living standards experienced since the last World War. It is because this growing economic benefit seems to be disappearing that millions of EU citizens are disillusioned.
If only more politicians decided to do the right thing in difficult times ... most countries would have better politicians leading them
The Brexit result has also forced me to make a U-turn on my thinking about the merits of an independent Scotland. Britain is now a fragmented nation split down the middle. If Northern Ireland and Scotland want independence, then the Westminster government should give them a chance to vote in a referendum to legalise such a move. London may be the next region to seek independence although I see this possibility as rather more remote in the present circumstances.
My respect goes to the British Prime Minister David Cameron who did not hesitate when the campaign to get Britain to remain in the EU was not favoured by the majority of British people. Rather than call him arrogant and stupid as some tabloid media labelled him, I would rather say that he was pragmatic to the end. He did not seek his own political survival, a persistent obsession of most politicians, but did the right thing and promised to leave. If only more politicians decided to do the right thing in difficult times rather than argue about not having committed any criminal act, most countries would have better politicians leading them.
Malta’s relations with the UK should not change much after Brexit. Most Maltese living today carry little negative baggage from colonial times although only God knows how many other national weaknesses plague us as a nation. We should not feel sad now that our British friends have decided that Brexit was what was better for them. They are a sovereign nation and have every right to decide on their own future without being called stupid by troubled gutter journalists who claim to have an infallible opinion on almost everything.
In a democracy, political unions do not last for ever. They evolve over time and some of them just become obsolete.
The EU is by no means a political and economic blueprint of success for all times. So far it has served its purpose, but it has no gold-plated guarantee that it will last forever. In the next several months there will be elections in Italy, France, and Germany and possibly again in Spain.
The EU may see more dramatic changes soon.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com