The Conversation (0)
Narjas Zatat
May 16, 2019
The new deadline for Brexit means Theresa May has the summer to hammer out a deal MPs can get behind, and the EU can accept.
Despite the brief reprieve given by the new October 31 deadline, there is still much discussion about a possible second referendum and/or general election, what will happen to the Irish backstop, and a whole host of Brexiteers and Remainers who have since changed their minds. It goes without saying that things are quite messy.
It is in this political climate that people are once more sharing a clip featuring remainer and actress Sheila Hancock during the final Channel 4 debate ahead of the EU referendum results back in 2016.
She spoke about being a child during the Second World War, and what it meant to her to be European. “I was a child, during the war, and I wanted to just go through the origins. I was bombed, I was evacuated, I had a horrible time and I hated the Germans. My first husband was air crew during the war. He was older than me and he bombed and killed many Germans and it haunted him for the rest of his life.
“My mother and father lived through two world wars that were started in Europe. The second one cost 51 million lives. When I was told and my gen were told that we were going to be united with our enemies and try and build a better future, I rejoiced.”
Obviously, a vision like that was going to go horribly wrong. It was going to have to be worked at very hard.
Now, look at the situation we are in now; the problems are global. It’s not just migration, it’s a shift of populations – as we had at the end of the war. There were displaced people all over the world whose homelands have been bombed to hell and were coming out of camps and looking for somewhere to live and we solved it.
“There’s ecological problems, environmental problems: there’s huge discrepancy between the rich and the poor, worldwide and that should worry us, because that leads to extremity.
“Surely we can solve those problems together if we’re united than if we close ourselves down, shut our eyes and hate the world.
“I am so proud to be British. And I am also proud to be European and if I wake up at the weekend and discover I am no longer European, I will be heartbroken.”
People are still loving it
And are saying it's relevant today, in light of Nigel Farage's new Brexit party
Her speech is being used as a principle argument for why Britain should stay in the European Union
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