Brexit 1-0: mature student waves adieu to insignificant Englanders
Warned of impending doom, dropping off a “cliff” and “crashing out” of the European Union, it’s a relief to see the rosy-fingered dawn breaking in the Guardian, which reports, “Top linguist: ‘I’m leaving the UK because of the disaster of Brexit’.” Alex Rawling was 27-years-old when he was named the UK’s “most multilingual student” in 2012. He’s taking his mastery of 15 language and moving to Barcelona. “Just booked a one way flight out the UK,” said Rawling on Twitter in English. “Not an easy decision to leave family and friends behind, but there’s a bad atmosphere in the country and I need to get out.”
Ta-ra, Alex. The Observer sees him off. “This whole country is on the brink of the worst disaster since the second world war, and everyone is just sipping coffee, going about their daily business as if nothing is happening,” says Alex, who is “half-Greek”, but not the half, perhaps, vigorously shafted by the EU.
“One of the things I was always most proud of in the UK was that this is a place where anyone can belong, which is an amazing achievement,” he continues.” That is now being threatened by the populist rhetoric of politicians and the laziness of the media in not challenging it.” So he’s taking his dictionaries to live in Catalonia, a part of Spain where lots of people campaign for the right to protect their wealth from the tentacles of austerity the EU’s technocrats enforced on the country.
Says Alex by way of a parting shot: ““I have huge faith in the people of the UK to sort this out eventually. It will take a generation… and in the long term, it will be good for the country to realise its own insignificance.” Anyone else think that last part would sound better in German?
Posted: 18th, October 2018 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
