At the time of writing, European States, one after another, are suspending flights to and from the United Kingdom. Some are announcing the last train departure from Saint Pancras. This means that the United Kingdom is really becoming an island in the middle of the sea again. Like a bitter and painful foretaste of what the Brexit will be like. This December 20th, the last day given by the European Parliament to reach an agreement on future relations between the UK and the Union, at 10.30 pm, there is apparently no agreement. But this is the virus that is isolating the British archipelago. Unless the suspension of flights and trains is the latest pressure tactic from a Union at the end of negotiations. Already, trucks are piling up on the motorways of south-east England, with all the shops stocking up in case of a No Deal.
Maybe that’s what “separatism” looks like ...
Calendar coincidence or not, it is also this month of December that the French government has chosen to put on the table a bill to fight against “separatism”. Hence, our editorial committee didn’t understand. We didn’t understand who wanted to separate, we didn’t understand what they wanted to separate from ; we dug into the cultural and political diversity of the territories that now make up France, we didn’t see separatism. We continue to find there a richness and diversity that our neighbours know how to articulate and accommodate. We are watching with interest the arrival of an Aboriginal woman in the Australian government or the Finnish education policies. In short, in the face of a French bureaucratic and centralist power that clings to a dreamed identity and a fantasised unity, we want to remind you that diversity, fluidity and dialogue are the pillars of a society and institutions that respect people and their individuality, creating chosen collectives. The pillars of a federalist society.