Brexit: Shakespeare in London

01.07.2016 10:15

Brexit: Shakespeare in London

In keeping with the traditional Shakespearean tragedy, David Cameron and Boris Johnson are the flawed protagonists placed in a stressful situation that ends fatally.

Politics and personal power

It would be totally unrealistic to think that politics doesn’t follow plans for personal power, anchored in ambition and in pure or impure human appetites. This has been continuously portrayed by generations of philosophers, writers and historians, where Machiavelli is still the most quoted. Although difficult to perceive, personal ambition has always been one of the main characters in tricky conspiracies and great political dramas.

One shouldn’t overlook the Shakespearean tragedy sequence that characterised the referendum, in an absolute sense of carnal impulses and personal political survival. All decisions that led to the referendum were staged in the evolving civil war that consumed the Conservative Party and highlighted the personal conflict of its main characters.

Behind the Brexit vote, we find very complex factors of a highly heterogeneous nature. It would be childish to reduce the UK situation to the mere result of a party civil war, a personal power struggle or political survival.

One shouldn’t overlook the Shakespearean tragedy sequence that characterised the referendum, in an absolute sense of carnal impulses and personal political survival. All decisions that led to the referendum were staged in the evolving civil war that consumed the Conservative Party and the highlighted the personal conflict of its main characters.

It is well known that David and Boris were nurturing a common ambition for a political career since they roamed the halls of Eton College together. Even in their best moments of convergence and alignment, they constantly watched each other carefully, in an undisguised relationship of rivalry.

It is well known that David and Boris were nurturing a common ambition for a political career since they roamed the halls of Eton College together. Even in their best moments of convergence and alignment, they constantly watched each other carefully, in an undisguised relationship of rivalry. When David urged Boris to run for mayor of London, the eccentric Boris suspected that David just wanted him away from Downing Street.

The survival instinct

When pressured by the Conservative Eurosceptic legion, David granted them the referendum. Not because it corresponds to his vision of Britain’s future, but only out of a sheer physical instinct for political survival: if not, his leadership of the Tories would be at stake. As befits the fate and destiny of tragedies, Macbeth’s witches, Hamlet's ghost or the ancient Greek choruses played their part and things didn’t go as David intended. The mysterious forces of Fate always weave a twist and by winning an absolute majority, David lost his perfect excuse to withhold a plebiscite, as he no longer required the support of the pro-European Liberal Democrats.

This all started with a human whim for survival, not by the founded belief of a leader

The next act saw David barely saving face in European negotiations and his opponents growing stronger. David wanted to speed up the whole process, so that the referendum could happen before the holidays, a timing he believed could help to keep the UK in the EU. In another twist of Fate: the refugee crisis erupted with dramatism and alarmism, giving way to demagoguery and populism. But oh, it presses to my memory like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds: this all started with a human whim for survival, not by the founded belief of a leader.

Revenge

Many years ago, a politician said that, in politics, it can always get worse. And indeed this is what happened for David when blonde Boris, who has always been pro-European, abandoned his personal convictions and decided to lead the Brexit campaign. At this hour lie at my mercy all mine enemies. It was the revenge of his old Eton colleague, blinded by a personal ambition to become Prime Minister.

In keeping with the tradition of Shakespeare’s tragedies, David and Boris died in the end and died without any honour or glory. David may go down in history as the one who divided a kingdom once united. And Boris ruled himself out of the Conservative leader race as he couldn’t provide the leadership or unity needed in such dire times.

The referendum was not, for him, a moment of affirmation of his political beliefs, it was the dagger that enabled him to take David’s place. Any Claudius or Macbeth would not do better. And Boris put all his weight behind the Brexit cause, not hesitating in using demagogy and even vulgarity (as seen in reaction to Obama's position). Once again, Boris' personal ambition was put ahead of what he had hitherto deemed to be the British interest.

The tragic

In keeping with the tradition of Shakespeare’s tragedies, David and Boris died in the end and died without any honour or glory. David may go down in history as the one who divided a kingdom once united. And Boris ruled himself out of the Conservative leader race as he couldn’t provide the leadership or unity needed in such dire times.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

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