2017 July

Dunkirk is a searing argument for defeating  Brexit.  Christopher Nolan’s new movie released yesterday shows the evacuation of British and French troops from the beaches of Dunkirk on May 26th 1940.   They were pursued by A German army and airforce.   This was just over 77 years ago.   It’s within the living memory of millions of people.   Since the end of the Second World War, five years later, no western European nation has invaded a neighbouring country – the longest period of peace in the Common Era history of the continent.

Dunkirk was a defeat, a retreat, an evacuation in the face of a military threat.   Brexit is a self-imposed defeat, a retreat, an evacuation following a massive shot in Britain’s foot by a grossly negligent, incompetent British Conservative party.   The structures of the European Union, slowly and painfully built (with considerable British contribution over many decades) out of the devastation of that conflict, hold the murderous forces of war at bay.   The European way of supporting the lives of citizens and solving problems is to discuss, negotiate, vote and discuss again.   It is laborious, frustrating, opaque and has no equal in the astonishing achievement of bringing lasting peace to a continent of 500 million citizens.

In the Financial Times of July 17th 2017, Gideon Rachman begins an article with ‘The campaign to stop Brexit is gathering pace’, noting increasing chatter about a second referendum.   He says that ‘The reasons that Remainer politicians are still so cautious about explicitly rejecting Brexit is that they are worried about sounding undemocratic’.   Many of the online responses to the article showed why this is so, but one correspondent replied, ‘In a democracy the people speak all the time.  Not just once.  Every day, every week, every month, anytime they want and in the UK, Parliament is, and always has been, the only sovereign authority and one perfectly entitled to change its mind every day of the week if it wants.’   David Davis, Brexit secretary, agrees.   He said, ‘If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy’ (quoted in the Independent).

Christopher Nolan’s film graphically showed men and women shot, blown up, drowning in sinking hospital ships, swimming through water ablaze with burning oil.    Other human beings did this to them.   No nation in the war had a monopoly of industrialized murder.   It is the wretched, tedious democratic processes of the European Union that have prevented this happening again.   The year after the end of the war, Winston Churchill envisaged this in a speech at the University of Zurich on September 19th 1946.   The supposed benefits of Brexit are steadily being shown to be an illusion.   Brexit is a displacement activity, to avoid the intensely difficult business of governing fairly a complex modern nation.   I urge us, the British people, to change our minds, not through another referendum but through the great democratic institution that underpins our liberty – the British Parliament.    Rational persuasion of our fellow citizens will avert another Dunkirk.

See also ‘U-turn to Europe‘, ‘Three Ways Forward’, ‘Brexit – waste of time’

ACE – Arts Council England – has announced taxpayer support for the arts in England of £1.6 billion for the four-year period from 2018 to 2020.   Out of a total UK public expenditure of £800 billion a year, this is less than a rounding error.   But down at the sharp end – enabling arts businesses to support individual artists in expressing a view of the world – the money is life-blood.

In the UK, Maynard Keynes invented the Arts Council after the Second World War.   Art has always relied on patronage – royal, ducal, charitable, corporate.    In many European countries, taxpayers have taken their place alongside the great and the good in providing patronage for the arts.   In the UK, taxpayers have devolved decisions about disbursing their patronage to the arts councils of the constituent nations.    Maybe few people know that or feel it in any way.    For the recipients, it is a huge privilege.

I chair the board of Inpress, which supports independent literary publishers across the UK with sales, distribution and membership services.   To our delight, ACE has recognised the value of what we do by continuing to fund an element of the core costs of running the business for the next five years.  In return, we grow the sales of small, independent publishers and provide them with access to the major channels of retail and wholesale distribution which, on their own, they would find it very hard to access.

Last year Inpress rescued the Poetry Book Society from going out of business after 65 years.   The PBS is a child of ACE, having been set up with a £2,000 grant in 1953.   Now, under Inpress ownership, it is a stand-alone business and does not rely on the taxpayer for the funding of its daily activity.   Exceptionally, however, ACE has granted an annual sum of money to fund the recruitment of new members through online marketing.   Each member of the PBS receives a copy of a selected new collection of poetry every quarter.   This sales bonus to the selected poet and publisher significantly increases the number of copies of that title in circulation.    This helps the flow of royalties to the poet and the publisher stay in business.   The PBS is a vital element in the British poetry ecosystem.

A vibrant independent publishing industry is an essential element of a civilised society.   In return for the privilege of receiving taxpayers’ money, we engage to demonstrate the value of every penny spent, to sustain independent literary publishers in their work, and to broaden the reach of the insightful, passionate and humane voices of our contemporary poets.