Opinion

Tom Kelly: DUP and Tories need to realise the UK was broken even before Brexit

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Tom Kelly
Tom Kelly Tom Kelly

So some Tories have been thinking about new measures to strengthen the post-Brexit Union.

These include: Beefeater gin becoming the national tipple and studies in Empire philately; British citizens will be encouraged to have visible patriotic tattoos and fish and chips will become the national dish. Cars will be allowed to display symbols which demonstrate that owners are proud to be British, acceptable symbols include a clenched fist, two fingers Churchill-style or reversed. Regional symbols such as sash, leek or haggis are also approved.

Carry On England will form part of the ‘national’ curriculum. The Equality Commission will be abolished. Rule Britannia will be the new national anthem.

Stormont will get a new statue of Oliver Cromwell whilst Scotland will get a new Governor General - Nigel Farage. As usual, the indecisive Welsh will be taken for granted but Max Boyce (of Hymns and Arias fame) will join the Order of the Garter.

Of course, I jest!

Or do I?

The Tory think tank, The Policy Exchange - a misnomer on two levels - has been actually looking at ideas for promoting or strengthening the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Policy Exchange produced a litany of ‘patriotic’ measures including personalised county symbols for registration plates, lots of bridges and making Remembrance Day a public holiday.

No less a person than the prime minister has taken upon himself the title of Minister for the Union.That there is a real danger of Mr Johnson becoming the first prime minister of England and last of the UK seems lost on him and his cohort of chortling pink gin quaffers.

And not to be left out, local MP, Emma Little-Pengelly has become the chairperson of a new all party parliamentary Group on Strengthening the Union.

Not that the latter should be of any great public concern as these groups exist for topics as diverse as American football, jazz appreciation and cats.

This outpouring of ‘patriotic Britishness’ is nothing more than a wish list of toxic monocultural drivel which seems to re-imagine a picture postcard 1950’s Britain. It didn’t exist then or now.

Immigration saved the UK from faster post war decline. Irish navvies worked the roads and our nurses staffed the hospitals, West Indians were driving the buses and Asians were on the factory floors.

The 1950s and 60s saw the start of modern multicultural Britain. Society is now a kaleidoscope of ethnicities, though some struggle with their displacement in this Britain.

The UK is broken but its not all down to Brexit. Brexit just exposes the depth of societal rifts.

Britain and in particular England was broken before Brexit. The economic inequalities between the north and the south were already apparent. The north of England is a wasteland of deprivation. The lack of opportunities for young black people and Asians in Britain is staggering. The failure to bring about any social cohesion between the white working class and established Muslim communities living in Britain has been cataclysmic for both community relations and stability. Just how broken is also evidenced by the rise of far right groups and the prevalence of knife crime amongst black communities in London.

Scotland is three quarters on the way to independence.

Blue blooded toffs in Downing Street backed by the DUP will not stop the tide of social and political change.

Northern Ireland is a political basket case. The centenary of Northern Ireland is no cause for celebration. It was created as a sectarian and discriminatory state and remained so for over seventy years. In some ways the now dying shipyard is the last remnant of a repugnant era.

Patriotic claptrap will not paper over the deep chasms of Broken Britain or blindside people to the damage of Brexit. As for Tory/DUP nostalgic feelings about an Enid Blyton Britain - get over it. Buy a kiss me quick hat, some Blackpool rock and belt out the White Cliffs of Dover.