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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 08 February 2020

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Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher, a residentiary canon of Coventry Cathedral and director of the Cathedral's Centre for International Reconciliation (1985-1997); a member of the General Synod of the Church of England from 1970-81 and 1995-97. He joined Amnesty International at its inception in 1961 and was Chair of AI UK from 1975-1979;  Vice President, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); and a lifetime worker for peace and social Justice.

Paul Oestreicher, a disciple of universal compassion and an inspirational peacemaker

Photo:vaincrelaviolence.org

Brexit is, I believe, an English tragedy, a self-inflicted wound, English, not British. My own story leaves me no choice but to believe this. I will tell you why a little later. But first, forget who is writing this. I need to admit that maybe, dislike it intensely as I do, it had to happen. And not because of statistics. 

It is likely that Le General was right. Charles de Gaulle lived as an exiled Frenchman in England during the Second World War. His nation had been humiliatingly defeated by Germany. The English did not allow him to forget it. Instead of respecting him as the leader of the Free French, the English proudly ignored him. He gained an insight into the English character that led him to respect, not Britain, but Germany. On that, he built his vision of a future Europe without the English. Non, was his reply, to our first application.

Henry Vlll was convinced that the number of his wives was none of the Pope’s business. So, The Church of England was born. The break with Rome was at least as dramatic in its consequences as the break with Brussels now.  Anglicanism turned out to be neither flesh nor fowl, Henry his own kind of Catholic, his successors their particular kinds of Protestant. It worked, after some bloodletting. What mattered was, the English were different, with the Queen’s Prayer Book ironing out the differences. Not to forget putting down the Scots. And a short-lived Revolution that incidentally dealt cruelly with the Irish. And going on to build the world’s greatest Empire.

Blue blood was a problem. It kept ignoring frontiers, kept fomenting continental wars of succession but, having crossed the channel, skilfully Englished the aristocracy, even the many whose mother tongue was German. The royals did nothing to unite Europe. Britannia turned her back and took to ruling the waves - globally. Spaniards be damned.

So much for part of the background to Brexit. Who am I writing this, and why? The only child of a Jewish-born Christian German paediatrician and a German mother, singer and artist, of peasant background. In 1939, aged seven, I arrived in New Zealand with my refugee parents. That same year, World War II began, making us enemy aliens. The children chased me around the school yard. Their game was called: ‘Hunt the Hun’. I played along. A little girl shouted: ‘He’s not just a German, he’s a Jew!’ Did she know what a Jew was? Anyway, not nice.

In 1955, an Anglican ordinand with a degree in politics, I returned to Germany as a New Zealand postgraduate student. My paternal grandmother had died, a victim of the Holocaust. I was subsequently ordained in London and went on to serve the British churches for the rest of my working life, much involved in public affairs: East Europe Secretary of the British Council of Churches, Chair of Amnesty and finally Director of International Ministry at Coventry Cathedral. Even, for a decade, a South London vicar.

People sometimes ask me: ‘Where is home for you?’ ‘Where God sends me’, cuts through the complexities, but is really an evasion. Germany is my first answer. I never spoke to my parents in anything but German. I’m glad to have my German citizenship back. New Zealand is my second answer, my home by adoption and conviction. I return regularly. The landscapes of both countries are my landscapes. 

England? It has never felt like home. For 64 years I have remained one of its many, many immigrants, well treated (unlike too many others) but kept at arms’ length, never quite ‘one of us.’ Strange perhaps, that Scotland should feel closer. Dunedin, my New Zealand home, as was my University, was a Scottish, not an English creation. Brexit now underlines that for me. My closest ties to England are now, happily, my most certainly English children.

The fact that, until now, my British passport has also made me a citizen of Europe has made me more comfortable with my UK citizenship. Now, no more. I can understand why my friend and colleague Michael Sadgrove feels he has lost an important part of his identity. Given his refugee mother, a restored German passport might come to his aid, as it has to mine.

Being the passionate European that I am, I need to return to the experience of President de Gaulle. He suffered emotionally under English attitudes. Happy as I was with ‘European Union’ on my UK passport, I nevertheless realised that this did not chime with the feelings of most of the people among whom I live. There have of course always been exceptions, even among prominent Tory politicians, most of whom Boris Johnson has fired. My former boss, Noel Salter, International Secretary of the British Council of Churches, Winchester, Oxford and Travellers Club (how much more English can you get?) was passionate about Europe. As a young diplomat, Churchill’s assistant at the Council of Europe, he never began a day’s work without half an hour with Le Monde. He was part of a small internationally minded and often Christian elite, very aware of how out of step he was, a Tory with a big liberal heart. He told me that once, on a Surbiton commuter train, sitting opposite two bowler hatted Telegraph readers, he muttered under his breath: ‘Gentlemen, I fear for your eternal souls’. Were he still alive, Brexit would break his heart.

With very few exceptions, throughout the years of British membership of the EU, British politicians, Margaret Thatcher included, and finally David Cameron, knew very well that British membership was to the UK’s advantage. Yet it was a membership of the mind but not of the heart. Many of my friends, all remainers and friends of Europe, nevertheless think of Europeans as ‘them’, not ‘us’. They go to Europe, gladly and often, but still do not feel that they live in Europe. This is true of both left and right, across the classes. Now, those Brits who do live on the Continent are left confused and bereft. Thank God for academics and some journalists like Timothy Garton Ash, as much at home in Berlin and Warsaw as in Oxford. ‘If you think you are a citizen of the world’, mocked Theresa May, ‘you are a citizen of nowhere.’ 

Symbols matter, because they express feelings. The European flag was never flown on British government buildings, as it is in the rest of Europe. Across the Continent, every car’s registration plate carries the European stars. Only in Britain is that optional for each owner to decide. Just over one third have it. Most don’t even know there is a choice.

For more than 40 years Britain has remained the emotional outsider while politically, the outsider inside. Our governments of every brand have never ceased to belittle ‘Brussels’. Hardly a word about this peace project. Public silence on all the benefits, economic, environmental, legal and cultural. As often as not, Britain has simply sought exceptional treatment. And all the while, an anti-European press worked its poison. Even so, in a first referendum, Europe remarkably won. During the second, it is surprising that after all the lying propaganda and a lacklustre six-week ‘remain’ campaign, Cameron came so close to winning. Had his government campaigned with conviction and campaigned for longer, the UK would almost certainly still be part of the EU. The mind might well have triumphed over the heart. I’ve sadly got to face it: England has never felt European at heart.  

Nevertheless, on every indicator Brexit remains an English tragedy. Economically, the nation and especially the poor will suffer. Business knows it. The hyper rich will not care a damn in their tax havens. We shall all lose politically, culturally, environmentally, scientifically, legally, humanly, morally. Workers’ rights, human rights, equality and environmental protections will suffer. Shame on our Home Office's hostile environment.  Shame on No 10’s closed door to child refugees. Yet we have opened our doors to the prophets of hate. The police and MI5 know it. We will not be more secure.   

To all this there is a spiritual dimension, ignored because religion has virtually disappeared from the public discourse. Who has even heard of the Conference of European Churches? One of its Presidents was John Arnold, former Dean of Durham. The three fathers of the EU, Schuman, de Gasperi and Adenauer, were devout Christians. Their peace project was deeply imbued with their aspiration for social justice. Powerful trade unions were built into the structures. Their Christian Democracy was an answer to what they saw as the Communist threat. Their ideals chimed with classic Social Democracy. The Christian socialist Jacques Delors became its most passionate advocate, all in defence of the Common Good. The English Right hated it. The English Left simply did not and does not want to understand. It remains so.

An English radical right cabal has taken Britain over a cliff, refusing to admit that, by now, a UK majority may wish to remain part of a Europe that ruefully mourns our departure. I cannot forget the many who marched for Europe. Not in vain. In politics, never say never. The dye is not cast forever. A compassionate Europe is under threat across the continent. Its soul must remain our cause. How dare we leave the fray.  

Related articles:

 The Disintegration of this Disunited Kingdom- Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, A HUNDRED YEARS ON

So, They Got Their Brexit Done!

Read more in My Coventry Story

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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 05 February 2020

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Chief Brexit Cheerleaders!

Photo:libdems.org.uk

‘Brexit has happened. It is a defeat to be mourned.’

‘We have lost. We’re out. Stark words and a bleak reality. Britain has now left the European Union. Our departure is a tragic national error,... It is still opposed by around half of the population, by majorities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London, and by most young people, all of whom are just as patriotic as those whose cause has won the day. It is a defeat to be mourned and learned from.’

Could this, ‘a tragic national error’ , be the path to make this nation’s nostalgic journey back to ‘Greatness’ a done thing?  

As an incorrigible pro-European, I am grieving that we have left the European Union, in this ‘the most pointless, masochistic ambition in our country's history.’

Cry for a Nation whose Heroes were These!

Bad boys of Brexit: where are they now?

Brexit and other offensive words starting with the letter B

So, Brexit is done! But, with an eye on truth and honesty, first and foremost, we must remember, lest we forget:

Nigel Farage: one of the leading proponents to leave the EU,

standing infront of his immigrant poster which many people believe depicts "echoes" of the 1930s literature.

Photo: bbc.co.uk

'The EU’s goals and ambitions are the same as Hitler’s': Boris Johnson

Photo: express.co.uk

Another Chief Brexiteer Lounging in Parliament!

'It was one of the most consequential debates in parliamentary history. Indeed, the grave subject of whether or not to hand control of the Brexit process to those seeking to avoid no deal appeared to weigh particularly heavily on the shoulders of Jacob Rees-Mogg, who spent a significant portion of the time slouched on the government front bench.'-The Guardian

Long List of Brexit Lies:

We send £350m a week to Brussels

We can’t stop Turkey joining

• We can’t stop a European army
• We are still liable to pay eurozone bailouts
• The UK rebate can be changed against our will
• Our VAT exemptions will be ended
• Cameron’s deal was not legally binding
• EU law is adopted by unelected bureaucrats
• We can’t control our borders in the EU
• Criminals arriving in Germany can get EU passports and come over here
• Health tourism costs us billions
• EU needs UK trade more than vice versa
• Past referendum results have been ignored
• Auditors still refuse to sign off the accounts
• CAP adds £400 to British food bills
• British steel suffers because of the EU
• Irish border will be unaffected by Brexit
• UK can’t deport EU criminals
• UK is always outvoted
• 60-70% of laws come from EU
• Renationalisation of industries is impossible
• We get no veto on future treaty change or integration
• The budget ceiling can increase without our consent
• We thought we were only joining a free trade zone
• (Compiled by Richard Corbett MEP, Leader of the Labour Members of the European Parliament)

And Finally, we must never forget who voted for Brexit and why

Brexit vote explained: poverty, low skills and lack of opportunities

(And they all became an easy prey to be whipped into a Pseudo-Patriotism and xenophobic fervor…Thus, hopefully, Brexit, not only is to make Britain ‘Great’ again, but, it will make it fairer, more just, more equal, and more human: Poverty and Being Poor in Britain Today )

Here and for now, I take solace and consolation, by recalling the wise and timeless words, as expressed in a Guardian Editorial on the day Britain left the EU*.

'We have lost. We’re out. Stark words and a bleak reality. Britain has now left the European Union. Our departure is a tragic national error, against which this newspaper has consistently argued. It is still opposed by around half of the population, by majorities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London, and by most young people, all of whom are just as patriotic as those whose cause has won the day. It is a defeat to be mourned and learned from.

Some are celebrating today. Others are in despair. For many, it is simply a relief. All sides, though, should have enough humility to recognise that Britain leaves with an open national wound. It will take action as well as words to close the wound, and there has not been enough action. Commemorative tea towels and cheap triumphalism won’t cut it. But the truth must be faced. The referendum vote and the general election have made Britain’s departure from the EU inevitable. We have lost. We’re out.

In every other sense, though, Britain is still part of Europe. That is as true today, outside the EU, as it was yesterday, inside it. France is still visible from the south coast on a clear day. The Irish Republic is still a short drive from many places in Northern Ireland. The same winds blow over us out of a shared sky. Most travel in and out of Britain is to and from Europe. The EU remains by far our largest trading partner. Our security is rooted, now as ever, in Europe’s security. Many thousands of our ancestors died for it.

The bonds of geography and history, of climate and culture, of industry and commerce, of travel and study, will remain. So must the vast fund of common human sentiment that transcends the differences of language and national borders remain in place. The week in which Britain leaves the EU has been the week marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. The responsibility of passing the Holocaust story on to new generations is profound. That story is Europe’s story, and it is Britain’s story too. We may be out. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re still here. We are Europeans.

Dissatisfaction with democracy

Britain must face up to a changed political future. But as it does so, there are important lessons to learn from the immediate past. The Brexit vote was a revolt against many different things. Some unquestionably loathed the EU from the start, seeing it as a threat to sovereignty and even in a few cases as a German or a socialist plot. But membership of the EU may not even have been the most important issue for others. The Brexit majority also drew variously on a mood of discontent provoked by spending cuts, regional neglect, declining real wages, job insecurity, migrant labour, and gross inequalities in wealth. It was also, for some, a roar of rage against London, liberal elites, some of their values and much of the political system.

Only this week, it was revealed that 61% of British voters surveyed last year said they were dissatisfied with the country’s democracy. That does not mean they are right in all respects or that democracy is in existential danger. But it means these issues must be addressed. The three years of argument over Brexit after the referendum illuminated profound issues and had heroic moments. But in the end it was a turn-off for millions. In the election, Boris Johnson was able to carry the day on behalf of Brexit by offering it as a relief from the past, not as a bright beacon for the future.

Yet Brexit is not over. The separation has been agreed. But not the terms. We are now in transition for a further 11 months to an unknown destination. In practice, everyday life today will be the same as before. The country will not plunge into the abyss, a fact that will be shamelessly misrepresented over the coming weeks by Brexit supporters. For the rest of this year, EU rules and obligations still apply. But it is a perilous period of uncertainty that cannot be brushed over with the false pretence that Brexit is “done”. A great public task of this year is therefore to ensure that close practical and commercial ties are maintained with the EU as seamlessly as possible after the transition ends on 31 December.

Mr Johnson continues to get away with having his cake and eating it over many aspects of Brexit. That’s his way. But Brexit is a process of rule-making, not just a slogan. The prime minister will have to make a choice about this. He can opt, as he should, for the overwhelming national strategic and economic interest of close ties. Cooperation with the EU should be at the heart of his approach. Or he can embrace the maximal divergence from the EU that rightwing Conservatives have tried to make synonymous with Brexit. Huge issues are at stake in making this choice, not least the future of this country itself. The futures of Northern Ireland and Scotland as parts of the UK are umbilically linked to the decision. So too is Britain’s place in the world.

Lessons for Britain and the EU

Britain is an important nation. But it is not a global power. The power to control the world in the era of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping does not rest with Britain. It rests with cooperation, alliances and enforceable laws. For all its faults, the EU gave Britain far more clout in this effort. A world whose challenges are dominated by climate emergency, unrestrained multinationals, cybercrime, data-harvesting, terrorism and rising nationalism is not a world looking to Mr Johnson for solutions. A Britain that embraced unrestrained competition with Europe and the world would be a loner. It would be a Britain with the power to disrupt but without the power to control or shape. It would be like Russia without the land or the weapons.

We want Britain to have the wisdom to succeed in this new era. But we also want the EU to succeed. Brexit holds lessons for the EU too. This is the first time in the 63 years of the union that a member state has left. Losing an important nation is not good. Britain is not the only European nation, large or small, that sometimes prefers to march to its own drum. A better EU would be one that is more comfortable with the practical union of compromises between large and small, east and west, north and south, than it actually is – not one that hankers, mistakenly, to be more overreaching, intrusive and homogeneous. A better EU would also be a more prosperous and dynamic EU than it is today.

One day, perhaps, Britain will choose to rejoin such an EU. We will miss our membership dreadfully. We fear that Britain risks avoidable suffering for abandoning it. We hope to be back. But that day will not come soon. Anything else is a fantasy. Now as before, Brexit or not, this relationship needs to be based on facts and real connections, not on fantasies. The Guardian, at least, is not leaving Europe. We are a European news organisation. Europe is our back yard. It’s in our hearts and it’s in our DNA. We will do everything we possibly can to report on Europe, to Europe, and for Europe. Perhaps, like many pro-Europeans, we haven’t done everything we could have done over the last 47 years to burnish the links. The lesson for us all is to do more, and to do it better. Long live Britain. Long live Europe.’ - *The Guardian view on Britain leaving the EU: still part of Europe

Finally, in the beautiful words of a Persian sage, Rumi, when it comes down to Brexit:

‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’

And in order to be prepared for that eventual meeting, I wish to recall a selection of relevant postings which I had done about Brexit from the GCGI Archives:

“By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.”

EU Referendum: An Open Letter to British people - One man's view of Britain and the British (09 June 2016)

Eurosceptics should visit Coventry Cathedral: The EU's Higher Purpose (14 March 2016)

“Darkness Over Britain?”: ‘Britons are peering into the abyss after Brexit vote’- Rowan Williams (22 May 2017)

Want to know Why Brexit, Trump, Populism and Fascism: Read the books you did not read in school!(09 February 2017)

Brexit, Trump and the failure of our universities to pursue wisdom (26 November 2016)

The new Brexit and Trumpian World Order: Will they engulf Europe and the rest of the world? (12 November 2016)

Brexit: The Key Lessons- Now is the time for hope to build on the ruins (29 June 2016)

Britain today and the Bankruptcy of Ideas, Vision and Values-less Education (12 June 2019)

Dysfunctional & Delusional Governance: Posh Boys & Girls Ruining Britain (13 December 2018)

The Most Compelling Story of Boris Johnson’s Madness and his Nonsensical Brexit (09 October 2019)

 Our Green and Pleasant Land, A Most Beautiful Country: Pity its led by Donkeys! (24 October 2019)

Why Are Our Politicians So Crap?’ The rise and fall of Britain’s political class (03 September 2019)

British democracy is brought to its knees (01 September 2019)

. Do you have an eye for justice and sense of duty? Then, these questions are for you. (07 August 2019)

 The ‘Independence Day’, Not Long to Go! (09 March 2019)

..And now, Lest we forget… (14 August 2017)

‘One day, perhaps, Britain will choose to rejoin such an EU. We will miss our membership dreadfully. We fear that Britain risks avoidable suffering for abandoning it. We hope to be back. But that day will not come soon. Anything else is a fantasy. Now as before, Brexit or not, this relationship needs to be based on facts and real connections, not on fantasies. The Guardian, at least, is not leaving Europe. We are a European news organisation. Europe is our back yard. It’s in our hearts and it’s in our DNA. We will do everything we possibly can to report on Europe, to Europe, and for Europe. Perhaps, like many pro-Europeans, we haven’t done everything we could have done over the last 47 years to burnish the links. The lesson for us all is to do more, and to do it better. Long live Britain. Long live Europe.’

My Final Words

Britain is my home, my chosen country. I do love this green and pleasant land. In my own way, I am praying that all goes well for the UK and Europe. We must live together in peace and harmony, regardless. And hopefully, one day soon, in the not too distant future, we will again have leaders who are honest, truthful and will take us back into the heart of Europe again, where we belong. Carpe Diem!