The British vote to leave the EU has caused a major upheaval across Europe. Immediate past president of AIIA NSW, Colin Chapman, was in London during the vote, and had some pertinent observations to make at Glover Cottages on Tuesday 26 July.

Colin observed that The Australian’s Greg Sheridan wrote up the campaign and its outcome as a triumph for democracy, but he, Colin, characterised it as a Gilbert and Sullivanesque display of demagogy and lies. Scares about uncontrolled immigration to Britain abounded. Public shock and poignancy added to the hysteria when a popular and dedicated Labour MP, Jo Cox, was shot dead by an anti-immigrant activist. In the wash-up, Boris Johnson, a key ‘leave’ advocate who ruthlessly played the immigration card, was knifed in his run for PM, and for his sins was appointed Foreign Secretary, now charged with helping to clean up the mess. Michael Gove who did the knifing, was bumped off contention as PM. Andrea Leadson’s bid for Number 10 failed when she suggested that Theresa May was not a complete woman because she didn’t have children. The public outrage she invoked was strident. And after its members passed a vote of no confidence in its leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party was in disarray.

So Theresa May is PM. Colin played a tape of her first major public speech, in which she solemnly intoned that she may be a Tory, but her number one mission as PM was to raise the living standards of the poor and under-educated, not look after the fortunate few in the big end of town. Compassionate she may be, but as Colin observed, May has a ruthless streak. Following her appointment as PM, she sacked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Minister for Education and the Justice Secretary.  Immediately after that, on a trip to Berlin and Paris, she persuaded both Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, both of whom initially proposed Britain leaving the EU immediately, to give her time to consider the situation.

Colin speculated that after canvassing her options, May might come back to Parliament arguing that there is no advantage in leaving the EU, and that Britain should continue to play its part just as it does in NATO. Or she might follow the Norwegian solution. Not an integral member of the EU, Norway is nevertheless involved in the free movement of people across EU borders as a trade-off for certain trade advantages. May wants the advantages without free movement of people across Britain’s borders. But whatever she does must be approved or rejected by Parliament. The fact remains Britain’s departure from the European Union is by no means a done deal, nor is there certainty that if it does, Scotland will follow.

Report written by Richard Broinowski