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Winston Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle visit the headquarters of the French first Army near Bemancon, France. They are conferring with General Jean de Tassigny. (Getty)
No Island Is an Island - Not Even Britain Brexit Breaks With Centuries of British Foreign Policy by David Reynolds After years of wrangling since the referendum in 2016, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union at the end of January. “Leavers” were jubilant, claiming that the country had broken free of European “vassalage” and was now poised to rediscover its old strength. Many supporters see Brexit as a return to the proud traditions of British history. They invoke a national spirit of defiance and independence. Some compare Brexit with the country’s “finest hour” in 1940, when the United Kingdom stood “alone” against Nazi aggression. Recent movies such as
Dunkirk and Darkest Hour reinforce that image of a United Kingdom standing tall and proud, defying the German juggernaut that had rolled across Europe. Conservative politicians have lauded the popular children’s book Our Island Story by Henrietta Marshall (first published in 1905 and still in print) for its heroic account of the United Kingdom’s past as a singular nation, taking .on the world Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other Brexiteers like to think of the United Kingdom as that lone actor, bestriding the international stage. But the pro-Brexit, nationalist narrative misrepresents history. Brexit actually runs against a long-standing tradi-
24
15/05/20
