Knowing that I speak German, enjoy holidaying in German-speaking countries, my best friend lives in Germany, and I have a line of Zimmermans in my family tree, a mate sent me a link to an article in The New Statesman. Yeah. The New Statesman. To me. It was always going to end in tears.
The article (From Germany, the UK appears ever more dysfunctional and absurd) was penned by one Martin Fletcher. The name rang a bell. Even before I read the article, I found his website and recognised several of his previous articles in various publications.
Fletcher thinks anyone who voted for Brexit and then for BoJo, to get it done, is a fanatical right-wing ideologue, a jingoistic xenophobe, or was too exhausted to think straight, was easily seduced by lies and vacuous gimmicks. His vocab, not my interpretation. There’s no room in his closed, liberal-elite (probably metropolitan) mindset for the possibility of an intelligent, thoughtful, conscientious, responsible Brexit supporter.
His Germany article (sub-headed: “My daughter is right: she should raise her children in Germany rather than Boris Johnson’s increasingly debased Britain”) is classic ‘remoaning’. He compares many facets of life in GB vs Germany and, whaddya know, GB comes off worse every time.
So let’s dissect his article step by step, shall we?
“Germany, after the madhouse of Britain, feels like a
bastion of sanity”
Is it ‘sane’ to snitch to authorities for even the pettiest
of transgressions? They did it in Nazi Germany. They did it in the GDR. And
they’re still doing it. Brits sometimes snitch – I’ve done it myself – but not
to the same extent and with such insane fervour. Crossing a street at a red
light. Putting a recyclable glass bottle in the landfill sack. Overstaying in a
parking bay. There’s your madhouse.
“… there are no queues at petrol stations, no empty
shelves in shops, no labour shortages …”
This one I wasn’t sure of so I googled “Are there shortages
in Germany”. I’ll spare you the details but the answer is yes.
“Public discourse remains civil”
Civil within Germany perhaps, but it’s gloves off against Blighty.
And the way Germany treated Greece during their economic crisis was anything
but civil. If he thinks public discourse is uncivil in Britain, Fletcher needs to re-examine
his own vocabulary and sneering tone.
“[It’s] impossible for one small faction … to
impose its will on the nation as [did] Brexiteers”
I don’t call 51.9% of voters a small faction. The fact that
the majority of politicians didn’t want to respect that choice doesn’t put the
minority like BoJo and Jacob in the wrong. Quite the opposite.
“[German] Ministers still plan ahead and invest in the
future”
But they won’t let other nations plan for themselves – Britain,
Greece, Poland, Hungary … I’m not supporting all policy decisions of other countries,
even Britain, but I’ll fight tooth and nail for their right to make their own
decisions.
“My daughter pays just €40 a month for the nursery [compared
with] £1,400 … in London”
The socialist creed (very briefly) says that the state should
subsidise everything for everyone. The more conservative creed says people
should pay for themselves, with a safety net for those in need. Some adhere to
the former. Some to the latter. Right or wrong doesn’t come into it, except for
Fletcher, who can’t tolerate people having different opinions to his own.
“[Germany’s]
overall handling of the pandemic was far superior”
Firstly – we would have performed better had Germany not
undermined our vaccine programme with false claims about the Oxford jab and
conspired to halt shipments to Britain, thus contributing to more deaths in
Britain. Again, is that the action of a civil country?
Secondly – demographics and global connections increased Britain’s indelible risk factors. So, comparing simple death rates in an attempt to score cheap points and shore up a shoddy article is pathetic.
“… over the past three decades, [Germany] has “levelled
up” the ... former [GDR]”
How can you compare levelling up GDR over 30 years with not levelling
up the Red Wall communities over just three years, during which time Brexit negotiations
then Covid occupied everyone’s time and energy?
“Little Britain … prefers to demonise those … who try
to reach our shores …”
The RNLI is escorting them here safely. We’re giving them
free food and a roof over their heads, which is more than our homeless veterans
get. And how many migrant murderers and rapists do we NOT deport?
“… a home secretary whose parents left Idi Amin’s
Uganda…”
In the context of the rest of the sentence, Mr Fletcher, that
is a racist comment.
Fletcher occupies the same moral cesspit as property developers with their snouts in the OxCam-Arc trough. None of them can countenance decent people thinking differently from themselves and wanting a different future from the one that lines their own pockets. Fletcher dismisses us as xenophobes; developers dismiss us as nimbys.
And just like the Arc’s propaganda, Fletcher’s arguments don’t bear scrutiny.
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