Brexit. Such an ugly word, isn’t it? An ugly word representing an even uglier idea.

For months, Boris Johnson and his mates have been spending a fortune of public money on advertisements urging Britain to “Check. Change. Go”. Very fond of three syllable slogans are Westminster’s Monty Pythonesque public schoolboys... it shows the limits of their thinking capacity.

But “check” what exactly? “Change” to what exactly? “Go” – where exactly? Who knows? Okay, on Christmas Eve an agreement was reached between the UK and the EU. Big deal! It’s only taken them four- and-a-half years to get to a point which Boris boasted was oven-ready and one of his half-wit minions claimed would be the easiest political negotiation Britain had even gone into.

And is anyone much the wiser?

I will not claim to have read all 1,246 pages of the agreement but I have read those parts of it dealing with areas in which I do have many years of professional and personal commitment.

The early signs are far from encouraging. The British government has betrayed Britain’s fishermen, achieving less than one-third of what they promised them in order to win their votes.

They have betrayed the brightest and best of British youth by abandoning the Erasmus scheme. They have destroyed a vital sector of Scottish agriculture by ruining the seed potato industry. And, incidentally, they have seriously damaged Malta’s interests. It has already become clear that, without the UK’s restraining influence, the EU will want to move quickly on the question of internal tax harmonisation.

So, Brexit is a mess. It is, in short, the most stupid and poisonous political misjudgment the United Kingdom has taken as a country in centuries. I say the UK but, of course, it was a solely English decision. My country, Scotland, voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU as did my not-so-distant relatives, the Ulstermen. There is one glimmer of hope for people like me who no longer feel comfortable or at home in a British Union which has been guilty of such a vicious and possibly racist misjudgment. That hope lies in a simple verbal rearrangement. Brexit can easily become Ex Brit. More of that later.

They have betrayed the brightest and best of British youth by abandoning the Erasmus scheme

Britain has placed its future in the hands of a government which is arguably the most inexperienced, incompetent  and inept bunch of politicos that the Mother of Parliaments has ever thrown up – and I use that phrase advisedly!

This bunch won a referendum on the basis of a relentless campaign of misinformation and lies. It targeted relentlessly a dark secret which lurks deep in the soul of the Little Englanders, the League of Empire Loyalists and their ilk. It is an atavistic tribal nostalgia for the glory days of ‘the Empire’ when Johnny Foreigner jolly well knew his proper place... which was, of course, was to be duly grateful to all the English Massas and Sahibs who had dutifully come to help develop his country – by ruthlessly asset-stripping it.

The whole Brexit idea was conceived, driven and brought about by those shadowy figures whose only interest in the sovereign is as a unit of currency. Brexit was and remains in the pockets of the money men, the private equity funds, the asset managers, the hedge manipulators who foresee vast sums of money to be made by shorting the market in the inevitable chaos which is going to result.

They were aided by billionaire barons who see in Brexit the possibility of vastly increased profits by ruthlessly sweating their workers once freed from these pesky welfare, safety and social regulations insisted on by the EU.

So, what now? I am a Scot and I am a European and I am damned if I will accept having my identity taken away from me by a vote of bigots. The UK is no longer united and we need to see Brexit become ex-Brit in reality, and I believe Malta can help us mightily.

When it became clear that Brexit was going to happen – unpleasantly – there was a group set up to help those of us who want to retain EU citizenship in some form.

Regrettably, the events of the past year have conspired to focus attention away from such a move. As we all hope and pray that COVID-19 will soon be under control, it is perhaps time to reopen the issue of maintaining EU citizenship.

Malta, in EU terms, is a powerful voice. Despite size, Malta’s MEPs and officials are all well-respected and highly effective in EU circles. To use the in-vogue phrase, Malta punches well above its weight. Malta can help those of us who want to remain European. Please help keep the lantern alight in the window. Some day we will try to find our way home from The Dark.

Wylie Cunningham, UK expatriate