Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May gave an important speech last week, just three days before the inauguration of Donald Trump. Her main purpose was to put paid to any suggestion her Government might want to negotiate a "soft" Brexit. It was seeking "not partial membership of the European Union, associate membership or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out," she said. "We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave."
But she also made a more important point, and especially timely given the transfer of power in Washington. "The result of [Britain's] referendum was not a decision to turn inward and retreat from the world," she said. The vote, as she interprets it, "was not the moment Britain chose to step back from the world. It was the moment we chose to build a truly global Britain."
Wishful thinking perhaps, but she would not say this if she was not confident most Britons would agree. We have been led to believe last year's voting shocks in the United Kingdom and the United States arose from the same impulse to stop "globalisation" and turn inward, protecting people's national identity and jobs against immigration and international trade.
Immigration certainly. Trump was probably right last week when he told the Times and Bild he believed there would not have been a Brexit were it not for the flood of refugees into Europe the year before. He called German Chancellor Angela Merkel's misjudgment in 2015 "catastrophic" and that does not seem too strong a word now Brexit has happened and he has been elected.
The television images of masses of Syrians, Afghans and North Africans walking into Europe or landing from boats was undoubtedly a contributor to the voting "uprisings" last year, which might continue at elections in France and other European states this year. While the influx was not felt directly in Britain, it highlighted the UK's vulnerability to uncontrolled migration within the EU.
