The abyss between Global Britain and an Italy in disarray that has no vague idea of its place in the world

30 December 20203 years ago babelfish

The UK comes out brilliantly from the tough negotiations with the EU on Brexit . Boris Johnson, in the best English tradition, played on the offensive in a very difficult situation. He did not care about the criticisms and prophecies of doom of the pro-Europeans at home and especially abroad. He has challenged the bugbear of the no deal and made a flag of it. “A specter wanders around Europe, it is the specter of the no deal …”, we could say paraphrasing Marx and thus approaching the devil to holy water. The fact is that, faced with the attempt of his adversaries to spread fear among the population, suggesting that the exit from the EU without an agreement would cause unspeakable disasters, the prime minister did not try to reassure at all costs nor assured that he would pursue mediation regardless, but he claimed the possibility of a no deal as an opportunity for the British. And, in this way, a good agreement really reached him.

Here, however, I am not interested in analyzing the terms of the negotiation (which, on Atlantico , Musso , Daniele Meloni and Dario Mazzocchi have already done very well) but rather, starting from Brexit , observing the gap between the English vision and the Italian. In this story, all the difference (the abyss, one might say) that exists between a nation that has an awareness of itself and a vision of its place in the world and those who do not have emerged.

Brexit , by now it should be clear even to the most obtuse commentators, is not the recklessness of some politicians in search of visibility. On the contrary, it is the inevitable consequence of a strategy deriving from a clear vision of the role that the UK will have to play in the coming decades. A strategy well summarized by the Global Britain slogan. Great Britain, on the strength of its imperial past, does not resign itself to playing in the league of medium powers, frees itself from the regulatory obsessions of the European Union and dares to assume the posture of a nation capable of competing with the United States and China. Ambitions? Hallucination? It is all to be seen, geopolitics is judged by the facts it produces and not by preconceived and often bad faith opinions. The idea that the United Kingdom can play a leading role in the global scenario is based on solid ideas and facts.

The Anglosphere exists and concerns those States whose political, religious, cultural, linguistic, economic characteristics make them similar to the United Kingdom. The socio-cultural bond that has been established between Great Britain, soft power we would say today, and its former colonies is a reality. Let us never forget that England still leads the Commonwealth today, that is the organization that brings together the 53 States that were part of the British Empire and that therefore have never completely cut the umbilical cord that unites them to the former Motherland . Indeed, of 16 of these states the Queen is still formally Head of State. It is a symbolic charge but when it is time the Crown does not give up on having its say (see the clear intervention of Elizabeth II in the referendum on the independence of Quebec). The City of London is the most important European financial center and, together with Wall Street, the most influential in the world. British Style itself has a charm that is still intact across the globe. Therefore, the brexiteers ' vision of a Great Britain playing its cards freely, even on a military level, on the entire international arena, is anything but unrealistic. However you think of it, it is an ambitious and motivating strategy for His Majesty's subjects.

And in Italy? The absence of a strategic posture in our country is undeniable evidence even for the most staunch supporters of Conte and his ramshackle government structure. For example, ask the leaders of our Armed Forces how much this lack of vision weighs in international scenarios. Or ask Confindustria, to move on to the level of economic development. But do not ordinary citizens themselves feel the need to live in a nation that has a clear mission in the world? Don't they feel the lack of a political class aware of national interests and determined to defend them? We believe so.

But it is necessary to start from an adequate ruling class. The much mocked Boris Johnson (mocked by the hypocritical European establishment but overwhelmed by the British) has a top-notch curriculum: studies at Eton, a brilliant journalistic career in the main British newspapers and an excellent mayor of London. He climbed his party and became prime minister with consensus and by winning referendums and elections. Do we want to compare him to Conte? To our lawyer from Volturara Appula? Where is he from? What climb did you make to become prime minister? His inadequacy answers for him. Take Dominic Raab, Johnson's foreign minister: he trained in Oxford and Cambridge and has been a Foreign Office diplomat since 2000. Do you need to compare that to a Di Maio's resume? Take, again, the current British Chancellor of the Exchequer (the Treasury Minister), Rishi Sunak. He studied at Winchester College and served at the tables in a curry house in Southampton during the summer holidays to support his studies. He later studied philosophy and economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating in 2001, and earned a master's in business administration from Stanford University. Despite being only 39 years old, he has already held important roles in the world of London high finance and was Deputy Chancellor before becoming the holder of the department. Does it seem to you that our minister Gualtieri is comparable to a profile like this? Do you understand why the British have a strategy and we are groping in the dark? On the other hand, Conte is recognized as the main ability to know how to float.

Italians take it into their heads that without an adequately trained, talented and strategic vision elite, none of the great challenges we face can be faced. Other than voting en masse for movements that proclaimed that "one is worth one" and that any citizen could, overnight, become a minister. We have seen the results.

The post The abyss between Global Britain and an Italy in disarray that has no vague idea of its place in the world appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/labisso-tra-la-global-britain-e-unitalietta-allo-sbando-che-non-ha-una-vaga-idea-del-proprio-posto-nel-mondo/ on Wed, 30 Dec 2020 05:01:00 +0000.