In my previous blog, I gave the reasons why the EU referendum should be of interest to demographic historians who, like me, are interested in politics. When I referred to these issues in my previous blog, I was ridiculed by an individual who is very close to the Nationalist Party. I am here referring to Henry Fitzroy. But as always happens in the PN, there are persons behind the scenes who are afraid to express their opinion under their real name and who, influenced by historic fiction, assume the name of Henry VIII’s illegitimate son. What truly interests such individuals is expressing their mental and personal superiority by ridiculing their adversaries. The British gave an answer to all this farce after being themselves the promoters of such a mentality during colonial times.
I have been accused of being provincial in my arguments and a bad historian! Brexit is the reply to such accusations. The provinces won over the city, emotion won over reason. Britain has now opted to leave the Union. This referendum has opened the way for other countries to do the same, as is already being indicated.
Now I wish to analyse another aspect of this UK referendum and whether it would have any repercussion on a small island like Malta, which is an ex-British Colony and today is part and parcel of the European Union.
As an ex-British colony, Malta looks towards this result with particular interest even though I am sure that this resultwill not have majorconsequences for Malta, except that the passports that this government has been selling are now worthless or will be so pretty soon, once Britain applies for Art.5.
But there are major positive outcomes too. I hope that academics and politicians will stop looking at Britain as some sort of role model to follow because they are still conditioned by a colonial inferiority complex.
Veteran politicians, educated in colonial times, used to learn British history at school. Some of our politicians are still receiving their post graduateeducation in Britain. The current Prime Minister of Malta, Dr Joseph Muscat, obtained his Ph.D from Bristol University. But many in Malta have now had their umbilical cord severed from the UK. Even the UK is no longer considering Malta as an English speaking country.
This vote is a wake up call for the Nationalist Party. In these last few years, the PN started following the British Conservative values and politics without realizing that as a party, it was created to fight British Conservative values and ideals of superiority. In fact, at the height of colonial times, the British Conservative Party was the staunchest enemy of the Nationalist Party. The same name chosen by the Nationalist Party stood for what the UKIP ended up demanding for Britain - independence. In Malta, the truly Conservative Party was that of Gerald Strickland. But he presented himself as a progressive when he wasa ‘Fascist’. Labour believed in Strickland’s message and allied with him. In 1932, the Labour Party was nearly wiped out from the political scene because of this alliance. Labour should eternally be grateful to the efforts of one man, KarmenuGrima of Żejtun who prevented this happening, but his is another story, which requires a totally separate analysis.
But the lawyers and trained British strategists within the PN are now convinced that by copying the Conservatives they will lead the party to certain victory in two years time.Those who disagreed with this lineof policy were side-lined,and were branded by the liberal wing as imbeciles. The Nationalist Party was only interested in listening to the interest of the big businessmen and bankers. In reality, the party is now realizing that the big businesses are not particularly interested in the PN. They are joining Muscat’s movement.
The truth is that the people of Britain defied the big parties. Cameron and Corbyn were for Britain to stay in. Many of Britain’s politicians and bankers were for remaining in the EU. The two major parties in Malta must now realize that power lies with the people. If they think, like the European bureaucrats, that they are superior, this referendum result should teach them a lesson.
Whether Malta will be asking for a MEXIT is difficult to forecast. But I doubt it.Perhaps, this referendum will bring the UK to an end. The vote showed that Scotland and Northern Ireland is in favour of remaining in the EU. Britain will try to play the card that with Brexit, she regains her own original seat (being one of the original 5) at the UN with no conditioning by Brussels.
One needs to wait and see what is going to be the position of the formal East European or the Volgardic Group. I don’t think that they will be conceding much to Britain in her negotiations to leave the Union. This has already been hinted by the EU Leaders. One needs to remember that the Brexit lobby built parts of its campaign around what it termed as the Eastern European invasion. Now Britain will have to also negotiate with the leaders of these countries. In this scenario, the Nationalist spirit is destined to increase. Ironically, these are the same countries who want to build walls along their borders to stop immigrants from neighbouring countries flooding into their territory!
The question now is, can someone not be part of the European Union and expect to take all the benefits without giving anything in return? This is also a question that is being asked by a number of member states.
Ironically, the Nationalists in Malta used to accuse the British that they were not Latins and therefore not truly Europeans. History is proving them right. The European leaders are now twiddling their thumbs because Europe did not go to the Federal model, when the union was smaller, to appease Britain, which back then, wastotally against such an idea. This referendum showed once again that accommodating policies do not pay in politics.
In this new scenario, Europe has only these two options. Either its total disintegrationand the return of the free trade area or for it to go for a strong federal union. I am in favour of the second model. With Britain’s exit this prospect is even more feasible.