Andy Burnham’s lost the plot – he’s about to punch everyone who voted Brexit in the face.TA
British attitudes to Europe have always been a little mad. Now Andy Burnham is lining up something really crazy.
Has Britain hit peak Brexit madness under Andy Burnham? (Image: Getty)
As an island nation, we’ve always been wary of continental Europe. Rightly so. From the Romans to the Vikings to the Normans, they kept invading and nicking our stuff. For centures, our foreign policy was clear. Make sure no single European power was strong enough to threaten these shores again. When Napoleon menaced, we joined forces with the Spanish, Austrians, Russians and Prussians to keep him busy. In the First World War, we made friends with the French to see off the Germans, then tried the same trick in the Second World War, only for the French to fold at the first sight of a Panzer tank, leaving us to fight on alone.
As the post-war UK economy slowed, the Empire crumbled and Germany and France surged ahead, we decided to join Europe. It was a Tory prime minister, Edward Heath, who campaigned for Britain to join the Common Market, which we did in 1973. It may seem crazy today, but the left hated the idea. Tony Benn saw the Common Market as a capitalist club that could prevent a Labour government pursuing socialist policies and threaten parliamentary sovereignty. Weirdly, in the 1980s left and right reversed positions.
Margaret Thatcher became increasingly hostile to the direction of European integration, fearing Brussels was building a centralised super-state. The left suddenly saw the EU as a useful way of protecting the trade-union powers Thatcher was trying to destroy. The shock Brexit vote in June 2016 divided the nation, and the two main parties.
Get personal finance news, money saving tips and advice plus selcted offers and competitions
Invalid email
You agree you are 18 or over. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. You can unsubscribe at any time. More Info.
Many Tories fought for a soft Brexit, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn seemed happy to see the country leave. Now Labour PM Andy Burnham is plotting a path back to the EU at the craziest imaginable time. He’s lost the plot.
The EU is no longer the lefty-wokey club of popular imagination. Instead, it’s swung to the right, as populist parties surge. Italy is governed by Giorgia Meloni’s Right-wing coalition, the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is winning electoral victories, and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is leading France’s 2027 presidential race. Even social democratic Sweden has shifted right.
And here’s the maddest bit. Burnham’s own cherished policies could clash with the rules of the club he wants to rejoin. Labour slapped VAT on public school fees, despite education enjoying an EU exemption. Plans for public ownership of the railways could hit the buffers due to EU competition and rail-market rules.
Craziest of all, Burnham wants to join the EU at a time when its two most important players, France and Germany, are in existential crisis. France is in flames as its debts race out of control. Germany’s once-great car industry has been crushed by the Chinese, stalling the economy. Who’d want to belong to a dysfunctional club like this?
It makes me wonder whether Burnham is really serious about rejoining, or cynically chasing votes from Europhiles in the Greens and Lib Dems.
Some on the Left are waking up to the EU reality. At last month’s TUC conference, Unison co-sponsored a motion warning that reviving the EU debate would “reopen old wounds”. With luck, Labour will realise its leader is pushing to join a club whose politics are racing in the opposite direction from its own.
That would save us the bother of debating Brexit again. Unless some Right-wing populist emerges and demands we rejoin. Now that really would be mad.
