Brexit Metaphor No 75.
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, according to English legend, was a plant of Central Asia which grew a lamb as its fruit. The lamb was believed to be connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the land around the plant. When all accessible grass was eaten, the lamb died.
This old myth more or less matches the way some Brexiteers view the modern world: the EU is the plant and Britain is the lamb. They fear that the EU sets a restrictive perimeter in which Britain can graze and one day this will bring the UK to an end.
The EU does set economic restrictions by introducing single customs tariffs, anti-competitive legislation and commercial standards. However, in many other areas the EU has no powers at all, including defence, healthcare and education; all decisions in these fields are made by national governments. Yet, Brexiteers keep accusing the EU of encroaching on national sovereignty and serving as a straitjacket at the same time.
The most recent example of such spurious accusations came from British defence secretary Gavin Williamson, who said on December 31 that Brexit would allow the UK to change its 1960s policy of withdrawal from regions “east of Suez” and revealed plans to set up British military bases in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. This is all fine, but the EU was never an obstacle for Britain to set up military bases in any part of the world.
Isn't it time Brexiteers stopped pretending that Britain is the sacrificial lamb at the EU altar? Or else, should we all join the club of believers in the existence of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary?
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| Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Source: Wikipedia) |
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Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a series of original #BrexitMetaphors published daily. A total of 75 have been posted so far and another 86 Brexit Metaphors will be published every day until the planned Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
2. Disclosure: The author has a master's degree in European Integration. He also thinks he knows a bit about business, economics, entrepreneurship, China, history, geography, science and Rubik Cubes.
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