Is the UK at risk of becoming Europe’s dirty man?

Protesters during the National Rejoin March in London. They want the United Kingdom to return to the European Union.Image Getty Images

On the day Rishi Sunak took office at 10 Downing Street as British Prime Minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg resigned in his signature style: with a handwritten letter marked with no date, but ‘St Crispin’s Day’. It was a blessing for journalists, who enthusiastically deciphered the doctor’s handwriting of the ‘Venerable Delegate of the 19th Century’ and explained that Saint Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers. There were, of course, references to the rousing speech given by William Shakespeare to Henry V on the eve of the Battle of Azincourt in 1415.

Less attention was paid to the last act of ‘The Mogg’ when he resigned from his ministry of Economic Affairs. He introduced a bill to
Declare 2,400 Brussels laws invalid. That seems to be the last big bang on the Brexit battlefield. After all, brexiteers has the feeling that with the fall of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and that of Rees-Mogg, the Brexit revolution has come to an end. In The Daily Telegraph commentator Tim Stanley wrote that the establishment is now going to put things in order. ‘As in France in 1799, the elites returned to power after the Revolution.’

unrest

The scrapping of European laws has led to unrest in Conservative circles. Stanley Johnson, Boris’ father, is under the motto “Kill the Bill”launched a counter-offensive. Writing for the left-liberal Independent pointed out to Johnson that repealing 700 European environmental laws will have negative impacts on the island’s environment. According to him, the danger is not only that the United Kingdom will become the dirty man of Europe, but that leaving the level playing field will affect trade with the European member states. will complicate.

It hurts him, because he worked for years as an environmental officer in Brussels. ‘One of the moments in my life I’m very proud of’, he reports, ‘was when I was awarded a medal from the Royal Birds Conservation Society in 2015 for my part in the EU Habitats Directives.’ Johnson, 82, even speaks of a “Tory war against nature,” with the main enemy being a man “who wears a double-buttoned suit, speaks impeccable English, is unfailingly polite and is known for being 53 years old still always has a nanny available.’ Or: Rees-Mogg.

Climate Summit

Opposite The Times old Johnson expressed the hope that his son will go to the climate summit in the coming weeks in Sharm El Sheikh goes. Rumors of such a mission have sparked panic on 10 Downing Street. After all, Sunak himself had said he was too busy healing the British economy to travel to the Red Sea resort. After the news about the former prime minister’s travel plans became known,
10 Downing Street Know That Busy Sunak Might Have A Hole After All knows how to find his agenda.

Meanwhile, Sunak reported The Guardian, to train Rees-Mogg’s law. Striking, because the new prime minister had distributed a video during the campaign for the leadership of the Conservatives that shows him cutting European laws through a paper shredder. Right-wing media want to get rid of that Brussels meddling. In an article on sewage discharge off the idyllic Cornish coast, quoted The Daily Mail the Conservative politician Michael Take who hailed this turn of events as a positive consequence of Brexit.

The journalist in question did not realize that ‘Michael Take’ is a parody. ‘Take the Mickey‘ in English means to embarrass someone…

Patrick van IJzendoorn is a correspondent in the United Kingdom.

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