Brexit Metaphor No 83.
When Eleanor of Aquitaine married king Henry II of England in 1152, this spelt the death of the British wine industry. Eleanor was the ruler of the wine-growing region of Bordeaux. The union of England and Aquitaine brought about an influx of good-quality French wine that killed off the less efficient and poorer quality viticulture in the south of England (which had been reasonably thriving before that).
Some 800 years later, several consecutive rounds of EU enlargement have had similar effects on various sectors of the British economy. When Greece, Spain and Portugal joined the EU in the 1980s, the opening up of Mediterranean beach resorts to northern European tourists sent into decline England's coastal towns such as Margate and Blackpool. While the 2004 Enlargement brought the "Polish plumber" to Britain, putting pressure on low-skilled British workers.
The economies of countries are never static - they change dynamically based on changes in the factors of production. If Eleanor of Aquitaine had not killed England's wine industry, the Little Ice Age of the 16th to 19th century would probably have done it. Or the Bangladeshi plumber could have come instead of the Polish plumber.
Maintaining a static economy as if frozen in time is impossible in this day and age. If you believe in a frozen state, you might need to consider moving to live in a freezer.
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| The Angevin Empire in England and France, in red (Source: Wikipedia) |
Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a series of original #BrexitMetaphors published daily. A total of 83 have been posted so far and another 78 Brexit Metaphors will be published every day until the planned Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
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