Speaking from the sidelines

Subject: Speaking from the sidelines.

Oh dear what will become of us. Two years ago we traipsed down to the polling station to answer the question " Do we wish to remain in the European Union".

Such an emotive wide open question was to be given a simple "yes" or "no" answer. A simple question which needed so much information if we were to get the answer right or a complex question which didn't ignore the complexities of coming out. Instead we traded the complexity for an emotional question, "do you want to leave or stay.
As with most relationships the staying is often fraught with bouts of unhappiness, there are moments when you wish to cut and run, to make life less problematical,  to rediscover your 'mojo' or simply find 'peace of mind'. But then, as the divorce speeds up the implications of finding a new life outside the domain of marriage hits home as you discover the reality of your current position. To start again with the enthusiasm and naivety of youth is usually not on offer. The reality of life living under one roof has weakened ones resolve to go it alone, if for no other reason than not only have you lost the skill to be on your own but there was so much going on in the house which you were oblivious to along with the skill to now perform. The economics that two can live as cheaply as one and that sharing imposes 'regulation' was not apparent when you tied the Gordian knot. Like Alexanders attempt to untie the 'untieable', you resort, in sheer frustration to severing the knot with brute force.
Brexit seems to have arrived at just such a moment with the latest meeting of heads of state ending equally brutally with the EU reaffirming its position from the start and we hoping for a compromise which would produce something more palatable.
Two years to once again reach the starting point. Two years to find out that your partnership meant nothing much when matched against an ideology which sought to tie a knot that could never be untied for reasons of pragmatic necessity, to prevent the nations of Europe from ever entering into war again.
And what of the future. Our national life outside the partnership will require a crude painful reappraisal of ourself. A rediscovery that we were not all we thought ourselves to be. But on the other hand as we fashion a new life perhaps we will rediscover a more simple, more relevant life, not one determined by others but one which better reflects our own independent national character.
We must reevaluate ourselves and stop linking the past with today and especially the future. We must rid ourselves of the concept that we are equivalent to a world power and stop performing roles to which no longer suite our economic position. The worlds policeman, the worlds charity provider, even the worlds moral backstop all seem beyond our reach today and we must stop trying to right the wrongs of other nations especially since those wrongs are something we perceive and might just be appropriate to cultures different to our own. That doesn't mean we will withdraw into ourselves but rather become more realistic as a small nation should "and learn to speak from the sidelines".