{"id":2983,"date":"2016-06-05T12:38:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T11:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/?p=2983"},"modified":"2016-06-05T12:48:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T11:48:49","slug":"letters-from-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/2016\/06\/05\/letters-from-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters from Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend\u2019s Guardian has a quite wonderful feature<\/a> comprised of letters to Britain from European writers about the decision to be made in the upcoming referendum. It offers a fresh and little-heard perspective on a debate that has become worn out and embittered over the past few weeks. I urge you to read it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What you will read is that every contributor \u2013 from France to Bulgaria \u2013 has a vision of a vibrant but flawed European community that is desperate for Britain to remain part of the family. I was surprised how often the war was mentioned \u2013 in relation to the terrors and the bloodshed that the EU has helped to heal, but also in gratitude that Britain was prepared to stand firm in the face of Nazi aggression (see especially Jonas Jonasson\u2019s contribution).<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s Anne Enright, married to a Brit, and with two daughters of complex loyalties (given that the family relocated from Britain to Ireland) gives a lovely pen portrait of the UK that resonates also with this emigrant:<\/p>\n

“I like Britain very much. I mean, I like whatever Britain is \u2013 a shifting thing, a landscape, a language, a library full of astonishing books, a mosaic of peoples stalled in one migration or another, from the raw Saxon faces you see in East Anglia, to the sari shops of Bradford, to the eyes of my two children, who came from God knows where.<\/p>\n

They like the trees, by the way. Also, and in this order: curry, cousins, Yorkshire pudding, \u201cthe way that everything is better funded\u201d, the BBC, Bristol, sarcasm, the pub, AFC Wimbledon, Edgar Wright, Topshop and \u201chow the politicians seem very polite but are really furious\u201d. So now you know.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there is Yanis Varoufakis from Greece who pleads with Britain to stay despite the EU\u2019s poor handling of the crisis in his home country.<\/p>\n

“Rather than escaping the EU, Brexit will keep you tied to a Europe that is nastier, sadder and increasingly dangerous to itself, to you, indeed to the rest of the planet.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amid all the acrimony of the present debate these missives from across Europe made me think that more than ever, it is time for Britain to roll up its sleeves and plough once again into the theatre of conflict (not so bloody this time around, thankfully); to stand beside our European friends and family in defending democracy \u2013 yes, this will require some reform of EU institutions \u2013 and to help point the way to a brighter future for the continent.<\/p>\n

For some of my own musings on the scientific side of the EU referendum, try these two<\/a> pieces<\/a> in the Guardian.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This weekend\u2019s Guardian has a quite wonderful feature comprised of letters to Britain from European writers about the decision to be made in the upcoming referendum. It offers a fresh and little-heard perspective on a debate that has become worn … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}