In the dark imagination of English reactionaries, Britain is always a defeated nation - and the EU is the imaginary invader
© Francesco Ciccolella / The Guardian
Before the narrative of Len Deighton's bestselling thriller
SS-GB begins, there is a "reproduction" of an authentic-looking rubber-stamped document:
"Instrument of Surrender - English Text. Of all British armed forces in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland including all islands."
It is dated 18 February 1941. After ordering the cessation of all hostilities by British forces, it sets down further conditions, including
"the British Command to carry out at once, without argument or comment, all further orders that will be issued by the German Command on any subject. Disobedience of orders, or failure to comply with them, will be regarded as a breach of these surrender terms and will be dealt with by the German Command in accordance with the laws and usages of war."
Written amid the anxieties of Britain's early membership of the European Communities and published in 1978, Deighton's thriller sets up two ideas that will become important in the rhetoric of Brexit. Since there is no sense that Deighton has a conscious anti-EU agenda,
the idea seems to arise from a deeper structure of feeling in England. One is the fear of the Englishman turning into the "new European", fitting himself into the structures of German domination. His central character is a harbinger of the "rootless cosmopolitan" who cannot be trusted to uphold English independence and English values, and who therefore functions as the enemy within, the quisling class of pro-Europeans. This is the treason of the elite, the puppet politicians and sleek mandarins who quickly accommodate themselves to the new regime.
Comment: See also: