Untune that European string and hark what discord follows. Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation pulls a rug from under David Cameron and the Budget, and the Tory party starts to unravel. Some EU country leaders break ranks and throw up fences at their borders, and the Schengen borderless zone that allows the free movement of people collapses. Agamemnon’s leadership is brought into question by Ulysses, and the Greek army camped on the Turkish coast at Troy begins to fall apart. Untune that European string – take out the keystone of the arch – and people get hurt.
Arches come and go, one collapses and another is built. A century-old political party, such as the Conservative and Unionist Party, has an order, a structure, a rhythm and a heartbeat, that keeps it alive and operative. This immediate party crisis will soon be forgotten but the discord of which it is a symptom goes long and deep. The heartbeat will continue to stutter because of it. And the discord is Europe.
Look at the map and we are indisputably a European country. Look at the course of British history and we have deep connections and relationships all around the world. Look at the size of our population, less than 100th of the world’s people and the 22nd largest population in the world and then wonder how we have the world’s fifth largest economy. Yet for all our world trade and connections, we are a European country. Since the Romans arrived, our foreign policy has been bound up with other European countries, trading with them, allying with them, opposing them, holding the balance of power, fighting murderously with them – but always a European country.
Our contribution to Europe, a Europe of nations allied for 70 years since the last, catastrophic, European war, a Europe that struggles, moans, argues, compromises and eventually agrees, our contribution to our continent is an integral part of our economic and civic order, structure, rhythm and heartbeat, that keeps us alive and operative. Untune that European string, and the domestic discord that consumes the Tory party will consume our country too.