© Copyright The Times 2004
They're trying to kill my England
Joan Collins has never voted, but she will be first in line at the ballot box to throw out an 'insidious' EU constitution I have always been a nonconformist. When I descended on Hollywood as a nubile 20-year-old,
long hair and fringe obscuring most of my face, I was accused of being a beatnik. The actor and wit Oscar Levant quipped: “My dear Joan, I’ve now seen every part of your body except your forehead.” Meanwhile, the legendary gossip columnist Hedda Hopper sniped sourly: “She looks like she combs her hair with an egg beater.” But I revelled in my look and refused to adopt the neat coiffure of every other starlet .
A few years later I was again refusing to conform when I decided to live
with Warren Beatty. My daring move came, importantly to my critics, without the blessing of a priest. Even though Warren and I were engaged, living together was so frowned upon by my studio, Twentieth Century Fox, that the bosses threatened to drop me. My contract contained a strict “moral clause” and I must obey it, I was told. We were informed that we must pretend to be living separately or get married immediately.
We solved the problem by breaking up. (We were, incidentally, helped
along the way by another newspaper columnist, the dragon-like Louella Parsons, who chastised us as people of dubious moral fibre.) So you will understand that I am not in favour of a one-size-fits-all society. This might explain why my hackles rise when I see the one-size-fits-all continent that is being foisted upon us. If the European Union goes ahead and adopts its new constitution, that is what we will get. This is why the forthcoming referendum, when it happens, will be the most crucial
vote in my lifetime.
I am violently against adopting the European constitution, which will irrevocably bind us to many countries that we have been in conflict with for centuries. Now is not the time — when would be? — to hand over any further control to Brussels on anything: social issues, women’s rights, immigration and asylum laws, taxes or justice.
An insidious anti-English plot has been hatching for years — ever since it was deemed somehow immoral to refer to oneself as
English. I hate the fact that official forms do not allow one to answer a sensible question — “What nationality are you?” — with a sensible answer. You may be British, a citizen of the United Kingdom. I am English.
I have often been corrected by journalists when I refer to myself as an Englishwoman. Why do they not upbraid Sean Connery when he proudly refers to himself as a Scot; or Catherine Zeta-Jones, who declares herself Welsh; or Liam Neeson, a fine outstanding Irishman? It seems
more than ridiculous to me; but I fear things are getting worse. As the Europhiles force us closer and closer towards a “country” called Europe, we will all soon have to call ourselves European. A “national” identity will have been imposed upon us by stealth. No longer French, Spanish or Italian, just that sterile word “European”. What a ghastly thought.
One of the many things I love about the United States is the fact that the Americans are so committed to their country. They are a
people in love with their land and the flag that represents it and their pride is rightly encouraged by their leaders, who constantly refer to them as “my fellow Americans” or “the American people”.
When did the prime minister last walk up to a microphone on a stand in Downing Street to address his “fellow Britons”? Even more unlikely is a politician talking with pride about the English people and their heritage.
The majority of Americans love their country, although they are
aware of its faults. It is a nation presided over by a decentralised government, not one micro-managed from the centre. And national pride extends beyond those who were born within its borders; a love of America is adopted with vigour by the immigrants who have chosen it as their home rather than having been born to the fact of American citizenship. I take delight in their devotion and loyalty to their country of choice.
I have an apartment in New York and a house in the south of
France. Much as I adore the latter, I have far and away more in common with the Americans than with the French.
At dinner there are endless topics to be discussed with Americans; but I cannot imagine having anything to discuss with someone from mainland Europe. What do you say to a citizen of Slovakia, Slovenia or Estonia after you have discussed the weather?
I don’t know much about the politics of those lands and perhaps my views on the expected flow of people from their
countries to ours over the next months and years might not go down well at a civilised dinner party.
Although I have lived and worked in America for many years, I never gave up my British passport. Consequently, not only have I never been able to vote in America but also I’ve never been in England at voting time. However, when it’s time for the referendum, I will be at the front of the queue to scrawl a cross next to the word “no”.
Whenever I say this out loud — it is not yet
against the law to criticise the EU, you know — I am told by Europhile friends that we would have to leave the union if the other countries go ahead with its constitution and we refuse to be part of it. Well — so what? I really believe that we would be better going it alone rather than cede our powers to those
faceless, overpaid Brussels bureaucrats who care nothing for the individuality of sovereign states.
I’m proud of being English and those who say we are such a tiny country that we can’t survive outside the EU are wrong. Yes, I know what Orson Welles said about Switzerland and cuckoo clocks, but I don’t sneer at
that country; it has done very well outside the clutching embrace of the EU.
The Swiss have exacting immigration controls and asylum laws and their efficient police force has endowed the country with a crime rate that we in Britain ought to envy. Furthermore, you see so many beggars on the street in London, yet where are they in Geneva? The country’s streets, like the Swiss economy, are safe.
Some people might think it’s a dull place, but I’d much rather be bored than
terrified. And terrified is what I am: that we are in danger of losing our national identity and our country. Now is the time for us to demand it back from Brussels.
The author is appearing in a nationwide tour of Full Circle. This week she will be at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow |
