Letters 4

Another Guardian letter, published today, in response to yet another stupid thing said by Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson compares the sorting out of the Irish border issue under a no-deal Brexit with the Apollo moon landing (Report, theguardian.com, 22 July). Well, the moon landing took nearly 10 years to plan, was built on previous achievements and technologies, required about 400,000 people working together for one clear aim and cost America billions of dollars in the 1960s. People sadly died in the early trials (the Apollo 1 fire), and it was not designed to deliver a sustainable base, but only to enable the moon to be visited a few times. It inspired a generation, not least through the iconic vision of one blue Earth against a sea of stars.

Brexit, by contrast, only really got going when article 50 was invoked, does not have the same concerted will supporting it; rather, it divides the nation. It will cost the UK billions, will doubtless shorten many more people’s lives through creating more poverty and extending and deepening austerity, and it is a complete change to the state of the nation. Perhaps a more useful comparison than he realises?

There are two additional interesting things about this experience.

Firstly, I had a call yesterday evening by 'Toby' to tell me it was being considered for publication - a new service. (Actually as Toby explained, the reintroduction of something that used to be done normally a few years ago).

And secondly, the letter received some light-touch editing.

This was the original... which is itself a modified version of yesterday's post.


Boris Johnson has just compared the sorting out of the Irish border issue under a no-deal Brexit with the Apollo Moon Landing ("Boris Johnson: 'can-do spirit' can solve problem of Irish border", Guardian 22 July).

Well, the Moon Landing took nearly 10 years to plan, was built on previous achievements and technologies, required around 400,000 people working together for one clear aim and cost America billions of dollars in the 1960s. People sadly died in the early trials (the Apollo 1 fire), and it was not designed to deliver a sustainable base, but only to enable our sister planet to be visited a few times. It inspired a generation, not least through the iconic vision of one blue Earth against a sea of stars.

Whereas Brexit only really got going when Article 50 was invoked a couple or so years ago, does not have the same concerted will supporting it; rather it divides the nation.  It will cost the UK many hundreds of billions of pounds (at 2019 prices), will doubtless shorten many more people's lives through creating more poverty and extending and deepening austerity, and it is a complete change to the state of the nation.   Oh, and in the pursuit of a narrow little Englander view it will ruin at least a generation.

Perhaps a more useful comparison than he realises?

(NB in the above I've silently corrected one typo).

So the editing simplified what I wrote, and made it much more punchy.  Which is all to the good.    But I do think that in so doing they may have downplayed my abhorrence of the whole Brexit project.  

Still that's just a minor quibble...