THOUGHTS FROM THE BREXIT VOTE

“A country that elected Tony Blair Prime Minister at forty-three has a future”. These are the words of one of my university professors which often echo and resonate in my mind whenever I am high, high in thought of course and not intoxication from abundance of new wine. For the records, my teacher was not wrong after all.

Mr. Blair, no doubt, repositioned himself as a huge force in British politics for a decade with his style and pattern of leadership. Elected to the position of the British Prime Minister in 1997, Blair entered 10 Downing Street with the strength, vigour and zest of youth after crushing the Conservative Prime Minister John Major in an election that still remains one of the best for the Labour Party in British history.

Mr. Blair still went ahead to win two more elections with considerable but declining landslides in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Many Blair admirers are often captured as saying that as long as Tony Blair continued to run, he continued to win. Well, serves them right for their wishful thinking but certainly not my problem for now.

However, anyone who understands the British politics or its people will come to realize that elections are times when people hold their leaders accountable for their actions in office. Similar to what is obtained in most Western countries where democracy is truly practiced, any erring leader is shown the way out of public office through public votes. And like Margaret Thatcher (Lady T), Tony Blair, sustaining the tempo and momentum in such an enviably democratic and political clime for as long as a decade or even more, is never an easy cake to make.

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of Tony Blair as a Prime Minister was the repositioning of the Labour Party as a strong party in British politics. Labour party moved from being an opposition party to a winning party, a governing party, strong, and fortified enough to keep Mr. Blair in office for three consecutive terms in a row and possibly counting had he not resigned his position.

With Mr. Blair’s exit, Chancellor Gordon Brown took up the leadership and reigns of both Labour party and government. Unfortunately in the general elections of 2010, he failed to secure enough votes to still keep Labour in power. With the Conservatives winning more seats, a coalition government was formed between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The Conservative party leader, David Cameron, emerged the new Prime Minister and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats became Deputy Prime Minister.

The political maturity, discipline, simplicity, intelligence and courage displayed by Tony Blair’s decade long rule certainly rubbed off on Mr. Cameron who I believe, quickly realized he had to sustain the momentum and build up from there if he hoped to hang on for long. For six years, everything seemed to work according to plan until the advent of the little foxes that spoil the vine, the Brexit vote.

For some time before it finally made landfall, the crises in Europe seemed to have circulated a while in the clime. One of these was the Greek bankruptcy and the need for a bailout. After the first bailout of €110 billion in 2010, the Greek financial situation became everything but stable.

The condition was gravely exacerbated with the Greek people unrelentingly humming the drums of discontent, disapproval and distrust into the ears of their government. After all, someone has to blame and somebody needs to take the fall. And whenever people are concerned, the government is always the victim.

Greek banks become more troubled than deep troubled waters and over a short period of time, another bailout became a necessity. The second bailout package of €130 billion came in 2012 and this was followed by a third in 2015. The latter which totaled €86 billion ($95 billion), was accompanied with what an ordinary Greek might term “the devil’s complete set of cutlery; plate, spoon, fork and knife”.

The Greeks wanted to keep only the meal and do away with the set, but the donor insisted both packages were inseparable and that became the last straw that broke the carmel’s back. The Greeks had endured enough, had been stretched to their limits and it was time for everyone to know.

The Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum to vote for or against the austerity measure which the third Greek bailout brought with it. Like every referendum conducted anywhere, results are produced. For once in a very long time, this referendum presented a unique opportunity for the Greek people to reassert themselves in Europe and their pride of place in history. 

This sorry state forced the average Greek person to take a long trip down memory lane in time, in culture and in civilization. It was a time to remember that Greek philosophy (which to a large extent forms the basis of Western philosophy) no doubt originated in Ionia in Greece with great teachers and thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Epicurus, Diogenes, Democritus and  many others topping the list.

Many centuries after these great minds passed away, their intellectual thoughts and philosophical postulations still provide a guiding framework in our 21^st century world of today.

Of great importance also is the Ancient Greek civilization which spanned so many centuries beginning with the end of the Mycenaean civilization around 1200 BCE to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE. This was a period of philosophical, artistic and scientific achievements which had an unequal influence in Western civilization. No wonder why Ancient Greece is regarded as the “birthplace of Western civilization”.

With such a rich history and culture in human place, the Greek people reminded themselves of where they came from and were not ready to dispense with that. Irrespective of where they were in 2015 (in a big pool of economic mess and quagmire), they wanted Europe to remember that Greek is still its father and though the child may have grown to become a man, fatherhood like wisdom is a “given” for once a father, always a father.

Prime Minister Tsipras reminded the Greek people of all these and even more in the run-up campaign to the referendum and took a stand against the austerity package being handed over by Europe.

On his own part, Prime Minister David Cameron, who coasted to victory in the 2015 general elections, promised during the run-up campaign to the election, to hold a referendum on the continued stay or exit of the British people from the Europe Union. He believed the benefits which Britain enjoy from European membership far outweighed the cost.

Everything possible should, therefore, be done to preserve and protect this relationship. Unfortunately, this later became Mr. Cameron’s greatest undoing. By taking this path, the Prime Minister showed he was willing to trade British culture not forgetting history on the altar of European capital.

For a moment he seemed to forget that Britain had sustained parliamentary democracy for at least 500 years, governing itself effectively and has always been suspicious of European politics. Remember that Britain stood their ground against such historical trouble makers like Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, much thanks to their historical maritime strength and naval power.

Pope St. John Paul II was certainly right when he said that history is driven by culture not by capital. The conviction of Mr. Cameroon that capital is the indispensable tool in walking a people through the unpredictable terrains of history was definitely wrong and a fundamental gaffe at that. Just like the Greeks, Britons wanted to assert themselves and lay claim to their identity first before any other thing. They were not ready to dispense with their history or culture which has always remained a great treasure in British earthenware vessel.

Equally interesting is the fact that Europe is administered by political elite of foreign judges and unelected commissioners who are not really accountable to anyone in the strict sense. One of the success secrets of Britain’s half a millennium parliamentary democracy is to be ruled by elected politicians who can be thrown out of office whenever they break electoral promises. And Britons always seem better off knowing this is always the case.

And just like every other referendum, results are always produced. In the Greek case, the Greek people voted against the austerity measures of the third bailout package and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was vindicated and still continues to lead the country.

In the case of Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron was not so lucky because the Britons said “no” to its continued stay in the European Union. That marked the end of an era at 10 Downing Street for Mr. Cameron and the beginning of another for Mrs. Theresa May.

I am certain that Mr. Cameron would have loved to continue serving as the Prime Minister but circumstances apparently didn’t want him to. Like all public figures everywhere, the “down” moments never fail to come.

In the case of Margaret Thatcher, it was her laissez-faire attitude towards the cracks of disintegration and in-fighting in her party that cost her more than a fortune. Mr. Blair’s slavish support to the then big man of the oval office, Mr. G.W Bush for the Iraqi invasion made him pay dearly. And Prime Minister Cameroon’s overrated dedication, zeal and commitment to the cause of the European Union to the detrilment of the British culture was too bitter a pill for the British people to swallow.

Thanks though to History, which always presents us with enough lessons to learn.