The “Battle of Britain” is still commemorated … but in Hard Brexit Britain – for how long?
With the Hardest of Hard Brexits looming, certain historical anniversaries are going to prove increasingly problematic in the national narrative of whatever bits and pieces of Britain survive the next few tumultuous decades.
History, of course, is always being abused and manipulated the louder it is being invoked, but there are some anniversaries that are so unequivocal as to present a nagging difficulty for Britain in the decades to come.
Today’s date, September 15, is the anniversary of a very large and decisive aerial engagement that perhaps offers the supreme symbol of any nation’s commitment to the future Europe. Other episodes, like Dunkirk, can perhaps be customised to suit an isolationist “world” view, but the core grammar of the so-called “Battle of Britain” is far too passionate and sacrificially Europhile to submit to bend or warp to the new political reality.
In 1940, with France defeated (before Churchill’s proposals for…
View original post 363 more words
conradbrunstrom 