Brexit Metaphor No 58
Some cats roar; others purr. Only the biggest 4 feline species can roar: lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars. The smaller felines can only purr. This is tough luck for the puma, which is a big cat but can only purr.
Britain is a puma that thinks it's a lion: some Brits still believe that the UK is a global power. So if it wanted to roar, would a roar be heard?
Unfortunately, the spots for roaring felines have mostly been taken on the world stage by the USA, the EU, China and possibly one day India. This means all other countries are purring felines... which may mew at most if discontent. But the roaring lions may not even hear these mews: "Mew me if you can?".
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| Puma / Cougar (Source: Wikipedia) |
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Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a daily #BrexitMetaphors series, with 103 more Brexit Metaphors to follow until Br: lexit day, March 29, 2019.
2. Disclosure: The author has a master's degree in European Integration.
3. Invitation: If you'd like to contribute to the debate, you are welcome to leave a comment below.
Britain is not a kitten, but neither is it a "roaring lion". Yet, it does not help that there is a lion (and a unicorn) on the Royal Coat of Arms, which is adding to the mythology. But then so many small (non-African) countries have a lion on their coat of arms: from Armenia and Bulgaria to Estonia and Montenegro.
ReplyDeleteIs it unreasonable to expect that animals should know what species they belong to?
Denmark has 9 lions on its coat of arms, yet Danish finance minister Kristian Jensen needed to inform Britain last year that it was delusional if it thought the UK was anything but a small country: "There are two kinds of European nations. There are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realised they are small nations.”
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