As I discovered when I was seconded out to Germany as part of my job over a decade ago and lived there for 2 years, the above term was used often by Germans to describe those who lived in the UK. Like most simple and blunt characterisations it comes with more than a grain of truth, however much the term may prickle.
This description is no more obvious than when tackling our membership of the European Union. Not only according to some so-called eurosceptics can we arbitrary remove ourselves (6th largest economy) without
any kind of consequences for the world economy but that many of our institutions are unwilling - or unable - to admit where our real government lies. Every story in the media, every MP's phrase, has to be planted with a UK flag thus ignoring (wilfully or otherwise) the bigger picture.
Nothing illustrates this more than the complete silence from nearly all newspapers, and the BBC, regarding the news today
that the Royal Mail is being privatised as a direct result of EU laws - the arguments of which have been rehearsed on here, and elsewhere, many times to the point of tedium. So instead we see, for example, privatisation discussed in purely domestic terms:
And:
Depressingly the insular nature of the reasons that lie behind privatisation of the Royal Mail is echoed in many of the comments, across all media platforms. Words like; "back to the '80s", "Thatcher", "Same old Tories". Phrases that starkly betray short memories of Labour attempting the same
in the run-up to the last election. But no matter it seems, everything must be seen in tribilism of party politics, in the false vertical dividing line of so-called left and right. All the while it ignores the fact that it's always a useful guide, if Labour and the Tories agree on a policy - and it goes against their party members' wishes - then more often than not Brussels lies behind it.
But, nevermind, it's conference season so we'll see the same old tribal bollocks trotted out en masse as before. The
Lib Dems last year:
The
Lib Dems this year
One wonders why bother? It bores me to tears let alone, I guess, most of my readers to keep mentioning the EU's effects on the Royal Mail. And for what reason, when so many cannot accept that therein lies the real cause - that they are in denial. In the words of Kenneth Williams; "
what's the bloody point?"
