ALL right, so since the Brexit vote two weeks ago (was it only a fortnight? It seems like weeks) our political world has been in chaos. But I’m afraid that if there is one person responsible for this, it is David Cameron himself.
David Cameron is the only one to be held responsible for the political chaos of the past fortnight
From the moment he announced the calling of a referendum he had two choices. Join or even lead one side and live with the result, or play the presiding role of crown court judge.
The court judge presides but does not participate save only to enforce fair play. He listens to the jury verdict then pronounces sentence or dismisses the innocent accused. He retains his dignity and the respect of all present.
If only David Cameron had done that. He would still be Prime Minister, respected by all and obeyed by his Cabinet. But no. He had to lead one side of the campaign, which turned out to be the losing side.
He became associated with bizarre claims, outright untruths and angry partisanship. And then he lost. End of Downing Street career on a sour note with widespread discreditation. Who on earth was he listening to?
Whoever follows him must at once undertake a complete clear-out of the coterie of public school wallies and EU partisans – bureaucrats included – who so badly advised him. A measure of the losers – in every sense – was the demonstration in Parliament Square on Saturday demanding a rethink, a reversal of the result, or a second referendum.
Throughout the campaign the Remain faction, convinced they would win, was telling us all this was once and for all. The verdict of the people must be respected, etc, etc. The message of Saturday was the reverse.
The outcome had been too close, they chanted. Actually the margin was 1.27 million. If you divide that figure by the 650 constituencies in the UK (as in a general election), it gives an average majority of 1,953 votes per constituency. That is not even recount territory.
Since then, chaos. But the hysteria of the media is overdone. Memories are short, the stoical British people have seen worse. Our rugged constitution always survives. It survived the mayhem post-Suez, Macmillan’s Night of the Long Knives (nine Cabinet ministers dismissed at a stroke), the crazy Profumo/ Keeler scandal of 1963 that ended with the departure of Macmillan, the elevation of the unexpected Alec Douglas-Home, the Great Train Robbery and the assassination of Kennedy.
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Quite a summer but we survived. And we will again. The pyrotechnics of Westminster will subside, we will get a new premier, we will trade worldwide and we will get our democracy back.
As to economic ruin – remember when exactly the same was predicted if we did not abolish the pound and adopt the euro? The bigger the self-esteem the bigger the rubbish. And high in the rubbish category was Blair calling for statesmanship and Heseltine for loyalty.
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ANOTHER thing long forgotten now is the perception of Charles de Gaulle whom I studied at close hand as a very young member of the Reuters staff in Paris in 1962/63. He was always accused of loathing Britain where he spent four years of exile as leader of the Free French in the Second World War.
He hid it well but he had a grudging respect for both this country and its people. Also forgotten is that for 10 years he blocked all progress on EU-unification because he would not concede one square inch of French sovereignty. But back then there were two versions of the EU dream. Total unification and his idea of a “Union des Patries”, a loose union of sovereign states with bags of patriotism.
As soon as he died, the federalists moved in and took over. We could have been natural allies but back then the ghastly Edward Heath was a fanatical EU-federalist. That was why “le grand Charles” vetoed our application to join the EEC in January 1963.
I was crouching at his feet (there weren’t enough chairs) when he said it. He also said that if “les Anglo Saxons” (he always called us that) ever had to choose between being locked into a fortress Europe or the great open spaces of the sea, we would turn to the oceans. It looks as if, nearly 50 years after his death, he was right again.
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Had a marvellous day at the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton, Somerset, on Saturday watching the launch of a new historic aircraft project, Navy Wings, an initiative of the Fly Navy Heritage Trust. Apart from about 50 different spectacles, static and airborne, from all over the world, I could wander down my own memory lane as the world’s only flying Fairey Swordfish, now fully restored, went through her paces.
The old stringbag open-cockpit biplane won us the battle of Taranto in 1940 when we were really down and later helped sink the Bismarck. She was followed by the fearsome Sea Vixen, also restored. We also saw the Seafire (Navy Spitfire), Sea Fury and Sea Venom.
During the Second World War and the Cold War the Fleet Air Arm was far out at sea, out of sight and sadly out of mind. But those planes and pilots also saved our country and took terrible losses. So Navy Wings intends to join the air display circuit and give us a reminder. Perhaps the most amazing spectacle was the aerobatic displays of the Pitts Special flown by Rich Goodwin. He did things over our heads that I never thought (and I’ve done a few) could be done by a flying machine, even a stunter.
A dozen times I thought he must fall out of the sky but he always recovered and twisted on. Unlike the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (RAF) with its display Spitfires, Hurricanes and one Lancaster, often seen in fly-pasts and subsidised by up to £70million, the Fly Navy Heritage Trust has no government support and runs only on public donations and the work of volunteers. That should change.
France and America would never allow their history to rot in hangers and scrap-heaps. I was very proud as an ex-RAF man to be asked to open the show.
