The arrogance of the UK’s political class is ever less justified

A country where children languish on coats on hospital floors has no right to lecture the rest of the world.

 
Watching from Germany, I am endlessly struck by the gap between the bombast of the UK’s election campaign and the grim state of the country at large. Observing the country’s politicians, an uninformed foreign observer would conclude that the UK is either a fabulously wealthy country and a world power on the scale of the US or China, capable of unilaterally shaping the terms of global affairs (the Tories), or a naturally fabulously wealthy country trodden underfoot and deprived by an undemocratic occupying force which manages to be nonetheless safe, democratic and prosperous without the help of any regional alliances (Labour). Both are fantasies.

The Conservative Party promises to “get Brexit done”. The basis of its argument is that the UK is a leading world power and therefore can dictate terms. This philosophy may not turn out well. The country is, of course, a large economy with large military, but its decision to leave the EU — the most influential technology and trading bloc in the world — greatly reduces its negotiating power in any trade talks with Europe, the US or other major economies. The Tories treat the UK as a sort of giant cosplay for people who idealistically think that “Rule Britannia” is a reasonable guide to international relations. Romanticism has consumed the governing party.

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Πηγή: newstatesman.com