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Entitlement
Book Review: Heroic Failure - Brexit and the Politics of Pain, by Fintan O'Toole
I've often read Fintan O'Toole's journalism, mostly in The Irish Times, on Brexit, and this book had been on my to-read list for a while, but it was too painful to approach. Then, way back in the days when Liz Truss was Prime Minister, something moved and I felt ready to read it - Brexit is far from dead and I'm certainly not at the "acceptance" stage of grief, but it is less raw and I think the mini-budget has crushed any notion of Singapore-on-Thames; the Conservative party has become obviously ludicrous. (For what it's worth, I think Sunak will be "bad", but I think Truss was "mad"; now the damage has been done, Sunak has a ready-made alibi, but I think it will give him only a modest boost in the polls.)
The author begins by outlining some history, including a visit made by his family to England in the 1960s; clarifying some of the cultural contrasts and stereotypes (England more industrial and forward-looking; Ireland more rural and traditional, for example). But scratching beyond the surface, and navigating back to the present, his thesis is that the English (and he is careful to make the distinction between England and the rest of the UK, let alone the purely geographical entity of "Britain") felt insufficiently rewarded by its victory in World War II. Victory brought near-bankruptcy, austerity, loss of Empire, and over a longer term, faster recovery of European economies and standards of living. Further, the War did not give the English enough opportunity to prove their virility through the suffering of being invaded as was much of the continent. (Just imagine if we had lost.) Put in these terms, it's clearly unhinged, yet it makes sense. The 1973 entry into the EEC, in this perspective, is an annexation, following on from the initial dithering and indifference for the European project of the 1950s, then the humiliation in the 1960s. O'Toole makes some tenuous links to novels such as SS-GB and Fatherland, as well as Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose series, but he makes the metaphors fit. Finally, the austerity unleashed after the financial crisis of 2007/8 provides a way for the Powell/Farage populist tendency to tap in to dissatisfaction. The 2016 referendum might as well have asked the question "Do you like things the way they are?" - well, of course not.
As a journalist, O'Toole doesn't have to propose solutions (for more of that, see How Britain Ends), but he gives us the perspective of a friendly near-neighbour in at least offering a calm and sympathetic diagnosis.
I've often read Fintan O'Toole's journalism, mostly in The Irish Times, on Brexit, and this book had been on my to-read list for a while, but it was too painful to approach. Then, way back in the days when Liz Truss was Prime Minister, something moved and I felt ready to read it - Brexit is far from dead and I'm certainly not at the "acceptance" stage of grief, but it is less raw and I think the mini-budget has crushed any notion of Singapore-on-Thames; the Conservative party has become obviously ludicrous. (For what it's worth, I think Sunak will be "bad", but I think Truss was "mad"; now the damage has been done, Sunak has a ready-made alibi, but I think it will give him only a modest boost in the polls.)
The author begins by outlining some history, including a visit made by his family to England in the 1960s; clarifying some of the cultural contrasts and stereotypes (England more industrial and forward-looking; Ireland more rural and traditional, for example). But scratching beyond the surface, and navigating back to the present, his thesis is that the English (and he is careful to make the distinction between England and the rest of the UK, let alone the purely geographical entity of "Britain") felt insufficiently rewarded by its victory in World War II. Victory brought near-bankruptcy, austerity, loss of Empire, and over a longer term, faster recovery of European economies and standards of living. Further, the War did not give the English enough opportunity to prove their virility through the suffering of being invaded as was much of the continent. (Just imagine if we had lost.) Put in these terms, it's clearly unhinged, yet it makes sense. The 1973 entry into the EEC, in this perspective, is an annexation, following on from the initial dithering and indifference for the European project of the 1950s, then the humiliation in the 1960s. O'Toole makes some tenuous links to novels such as SS-GB and Fatherland, as well as Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose series, but he makes the metaphors fit. Finally, the austerity unleashed after the financial crisis of 2007/8 provides a way for the Powell/Farage populist tendency to tap in to dissatisfaction. The 2016 referendum might as well have asked the question "Do you like things the way they are?" - well, of course not.
As a journalist, O'Toole doesn't have to propose solutions (for more of that, see How Britain Ends), but he gives us the perspective of a friendly near-neighbour in at least offering a calm and sympathetic diagnosis.