“Narcissus would have fallen in love
However ugly his face —
Reflection of the self was all
— he drowned in its embrace.”
From Mohobut’s In-da-Bag by Bachchoo
A friend visiting the UK expressed his bewilderment at something Theresa May, Britain’s “dead woman walking” (DWW), had said when she had visited India. She said that she would get rid of all illegal Indian immigrants from the UK, and send them back to India. She was speaking to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose logical retort was that if she could identify them, India would readily have them back.
My friend’s bewilderment resulted from the seemingly unnecessary nature of Ms May’s assertion. Did she have any evidence of who or where these illegal immigrants were? If officialdom has identified them, why haven’t they been deported already? Hmmm! My friend obviously misunderstood the strategy of Ms May’s pronouncement. Ms May wasn’t speaking to Mr Modi, she was attempting to address the British nation through the media.
The shameful truth about why the British population by a vote of 52 per cent vs 48 per cent voted to leave the European Union was around the half-understood issue of immigration. The demagogues of Brexit, the Leave campaign sold the population meaningless slogans and formulae — “take back control of our borders” implied that a vote to leave the EU would stop or drastically reduce the number of “foreigners” coming into the country. It may be true that a tiny minority of people who voted for Brexit had calculated the ins and outs of not having trading rights with Europe and were convinced that new treaties with India, China, the US and Outer Mongolia would adequately compensate and bring new prosperity to the country. The others, the majority, voted to keep “Johnny foreigner” out!
A frightening survey points at the ignorance behind the xenophobia. Citizens of a northern town were asked how many immigrants they thought were resident there, availing of the schools, medical and other services. The population estimated the number at 40 per cent. The actual figure for the immigrant population of that town is three per cent.
What the Brexit-bluffers slogan didn’t say was that the migration to Britain in the past few years from the EU is less than half of the total of immigrants coming in. As the discussion and debate on the consequences of leaving the EU continues, it may be that this discrepancy or hitherto hidden truth is in danger of becoming apparent and damaging the Brexiteers’ subterfuge. Hence, Ms May’s attempt to assert that whatever trading rights Britain will seek with India or Outer Mongolia, it is not open to an unlimited flow of labour from either. The first feeble sally in getting across this message to the bigots of Britain was her lame assertion of expelling the “illegal immigrants”.
After her drastic mistake of calling an election and turning herself into DWW, Ms May has gone a bit further with impotent gestures to the xenophobes. She says she will soon deport, to their countries of origin, all the non-British convicts in the country’s prisons. Undoubtedly these individuals, whose crimes may range from terrorism to bicycle-thievery, are costing Her Majesty some cash to keep them well-fed and behind bars. Ms May could point to a national savings there by getting short of the miscreants — of course, there would be the offsetting cost of their airfares to Australia or Outer Mongolia, but she hasn’t mentioned that.
In the last year, with the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit in the UK, it seemed that a nationalistic tide was sweeping the Western world. Then, of course, came the triumph of the internationalist and moderate Emmanuel Macron over the nasty party of Marine Le Pen, the precipitous fall of Ms May and the resurgence of the lefty Jeremy Corbyn. Again in Germany, Angela Merkel’s fortunes, after her slump for backing refugees, have steadily recovered and she looks certain to hold on to office in Germany. Decency seems to have risen, not quite like a phoenix from the flames but like a slightly-burnt crow from the summer barbecue.
One of the most hopeful signs of this faltering flight is an opinion poll in the UK that says that the population, having been subject to more information about what Brexit will mean for the economy, for prices, for jobs and for immigration, has turned the 52 per cent for leaving the EU to 46 per cent, with those wanting to remain in the EU up to 54 per cent.
Polls are misleading, but it could be the harbinger of a trend that would take the British enthusiasm for the EU to the Scottish mark of 60 per cent. If that happens, it spells doom for DWW who will end up as just DWW without the walking. So also several of her colleagues and members of the present Tory Cabinet such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Davis, Liam Fox and Amber Rudd, who have staked their political careers on the push to leave the EU. They would certainly end up with Gexit — an exit from the government and even with Wexit — a dismissal from Westminster.
These few — let’s call them the Brutus gang — waiting to stab DWW in the back and make a bid for the leadership with each man/woman for him/herself at the time they judge right, have already begun a campaign to undermine Ms May. Mr Johnson and Mr Gove have reversed their long-held belief in austerity and are now urging her publicly to renounce the one per cent cap on public service pay for nurses, teachers, firemen and others in social services. It’s a Labour policy. Others are concertedly asking DWW to abolish the “loans” the state gives university students, and make university education free again. Another Labour policy! Then there are those Tories who want to increase the police forces to make Britain’s streets more secure. Another Labour policy…
The opportunistic tendencies of Ms May, Mr Johnson and the others would certainly have them considering joining the Labour Party if they could rise to be its leader, but unfortunately Mr Corbyn now looks immoveable.
