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beck’s

boris’ baffling
brexit battle

Will the United Kingdom really

leave the European Union? I

don’t think so. I reckon the cur-

rent Brexit situation will be the

start of a new EU tradition.

Imagine it is now 2219. The

British Prime Minister visits

Brussels to ask for an extension

of the Brexit deadline. As has

been the case for the previous

200 years.

Since 2016, the political buzzword, at
least in Europe, has been ‘Brexit’. It
means the withdrawal of the UK from
the EU. Following a referendum in
June 2016, in which 51.9% voted to
leave, the UK government formally
announced the country’s withdrawal in
March 2017, starting a two-year pro-
cess that was due to conclude with
the UK withdrawing on 29 March this
year. Because the UK parliament
voted against or failed to ratify the
negotiated withdrawal agreements on
numerous occasions, that deadline has
been extended three times and is cur-
rently set for 31 January 2020 at the
latest. In October, the UK Parliament
agreed to have new elections on 12
December. Many opposed to Brexit
believe the split will be devastating
for the British economy. According to
the National Institute of Economic and
Social Research (NIESR), the UK’s old-
est independent economic research
agency, Britain’s economy has already
shrunk by 2.5% since the Brexit refer-
endum and NIESR expects the econo-
my to fall a further 3.5% if Prime
Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit agree-
ment is eventually accepted.

Johnson was born Alexander Boris de
Pfeffel Johnson. He grew up in
Brussels, where his father was a mem-
ber of the European Parliament. After
an education at Eton public school (I
don’t know why they call a school for
the elite which charges nearly EUR 50
000 per year a ‘public’ school but,

hey, I’m not British), he eventually
returned to Brussels as a correspon-
dent for the conservative newspaper
The Daily Telegraph. During that peri-
od, he made up stories about EU
plans, claiming regulations were
being proposed that cucumbers had
to be bent and bananas straight.
Before that he was sacked from his
job at The Times newspaper over alle-
gations he made up a quote. He
became a Member of Parliament in
2001, Mayor of London, Foreign
Secretary and, of course, PM. I’ve
read somewhere that Johnson walks
his dog in boxer shorts (does
Johnson’s dog wear boxer shorts?)
To be fair, I know this ‘rumour’ is
untrue. The story was taken from a
website that creates goofy political
jokes. But for me, the whole Brexit
exercise has become a political joke.
One of the main reasons given for the
UK being better off without the EU, is
that it wants greater control over the
flow of immigrants entering the coun-
try. This accounts for a total of 9.3
million people – around 3.2 million are
currently living in London. An estimat-
ed 39% of all immigrants come from
other European countries.
It’s interesting to note, though, that
Britain has colonised half of the world
in the past.
Some have argued that the worst
nightmare of many EU politicians in
Brussels is that, if Brexit succeeds,
other countries could decide to leave
the European Union too. This may
open the door to a Nexit, Frexit,
Grexit, Departugal, Italeave,
Czechout, Oustria, Finish, Slovakout,
Byegium and Polend. In the end, the
only ones left would be Germlonely
and Remania.

Manfred Beck

‘ B r i t a i n ’s p l a n n e d d e p a r t u re f ro m t h e

E U i s b e c o m i n g a j o k e ’

71recyclinginternational.com | November/December | 2019

71_becks.indd 71 13-11-19 14:33