Rethinking Europe

May and Churchill

Theresa May and Winston Churchill have a lot in common. Except that Churchill delivered, whereas May can’t.

Credit: Visit Britain www.flickr.com

Takeaways


  • Theresa May and Winston Churchill have a lot in common. Except that Churchill delivered, whereas May can’t.

Theresa May is many things – an illusory ultra-sovereigntist, for her determination to have Britain leave the EU.

A turncoat – during the Brexit referendum, she fought in the Remainer camp.

Dogged in the Churchillian sense is more like it. With one crucial difference: Against very long odds, Churchill delivered on his promise to defeat the Nazis and thus free not just Britain from oppression, but the Western half of the European continent.

In contrast, Theresa May’s odds for “delivering a successful Brexit,” as she puts it, are impossible.

Why? Because the logic of European integration runs counter to the most (in)famous, long-term maxim of British imperial politics – to get something meaningful and substantive in exchange for nothing.

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About Stephan Richter

Director of the Global Ideas Center, a global network of authors and analysts, and Editor-in-Chief of The Globalist.

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