Cultural-Historical Reflections on Brexit: The 'Irish Question' (original) (raw)

In common logic, Brexit is foremost about the failings of metropolitan London-politics, media, the public sphere-to deal with the British Isles' geographical position on the northwestern edge of the European continent. 'Splendid isolation', for a couple of centuries the mantra of Britain's unique greatness, was cashed in for economic rationality when the UK joined the then EC in 1973. Europe, for British politics, for British sentiment, has always been a symbol for decline, for second-best, for having to face the fact that Britain cannot go it alone any more. Hence, almost zero political capital can be gained from the European cause, it has always been a decision of necessity rather than choice. Brexit, as we all know, is about supposedly reviving that 'splendid isolation' within a globally connected world, where British know-how, canniness, and can-do pragmatism will see it through, away from incessant, Franco-German 'administrative und rechtliche Regelungen'.