UK is the 'expat who never tried'

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Brussels, the centre of the European Union which the UK has now voted to leave, has indeed deserved this call to order; its excesses of all sorts and the amounts of money it uselessly consumes while heedlessly scorning its critics, well merits more than a slap in the face, especially from one of the mainstays of European democracy.

A 'new' referendum is out of the question. The UK, guided by its principles and its demons, including its political leaders, has spoken and must now accept the consequences of its decision.

Looking at things the other way, the EU, in its various member states and parliaments, has since Thatcher been politically more than polite to its rebellious plaintive offshore companion.

Since the result of the referendum was announced, we have been entertained to endless interviews on French television of private citizens in both France and England; some swearing they will 'go home' because Brussels has been naughty; others seeking how they will manage to remain in their adopted (and adoptive) country.

Most of the go-homers motivated by anti-European feelings should have done so long ago. One wonders why they are here. Many others may choose to do so because their British pensions will no longer suffice.

Sadly, what emerges from both sorts is an expression of their partial or complete failure to integrate in France; living in expat communities, they have not acquired fluency of a sufficiently high level in the language, cannot read or understand the French news media and do not know what lies in the minds of their French neighbours whose English is not subtle enough to tell them what they think.

The average English immigrant contents himself with the glib idea that his French neighbours are 'nice people'. He rarely gets a glimpse of their deeper feelings and rarely cares.

The individual cases I refer to above are symptomatic, on a small, intimate scale, (that of immigrants that make no effort to integrate), of what has happened to the UK in Europe.

The UK has failed to be an integrated part of the international community Europe strives to be beyond its own individuality.

It has above all failed in its attempts if any to remember or at least to recall to the others the founding spirit of the EU to blend individual forms of patriotism into an international one for the good of all European peoples.

“Home we go, home we will stay”, will no doubt be for many years to come the unapologising philosophy and politics of the expat migrants.

As for identifying the main culprits in all this, where shall we start? Perhaps by a trying to envisage the future of a new Kingdom of England.