Brexit Metaphor No 112.
Brexit is a rewilding project: in conservation biology this means the return of a habitat to its previous natural state. The EU evolved over decades as a strong domesticating influence on the member states that was necessary to maintain peaceful co-existence and economic cooperation: you can have dogs, cats and guinea pigs as pets under the same roof but you cannot have lions, tigers and rhinos.
However, a key question that Brexiteers don't have an answer to is how far back in time they aim to go in the rewilding of post-Brexit Britain: would they want to bring back beavers (extinct since the 1500s AD) or wild boar (extinct since 1400 AD), or elk (extinct since the Bronze Age)? Or do they plan to bring back the wolverine (extinct since 6000 BC) or even the woolly mammoth (which disappeared around 10,000 BC).
In economic terms, the rewilding project may range from re-introducing state aid (banned under EU competition law in order to create a level-playing field) to scrapping the EU Working Time Directive, to further relaxing health and safety regulations (as is the case in the USA), to extreme scenarios like bringing back child labour. The latter does look extreme, but didn't we all think that mammoths could not be brought back - while now it turns out the de-extinction of some species is starting to gather pace.
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| Woolly mammoths (Source: Wikipedia) |
Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a series of original #BrexitMetaphors published daily. A total of 112 have been posted so far and another 49 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, nature, science and Rubik Cubes.
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