Ashley Fox MEP for South West England, has written a piece for Conservative Home about the EU's attitude to the Galileo satellite programme (HERE) a European rival to the US global positioning system that we (and the military) all use for navigation. He is like many Brexiteers on many different issues. Each can find a reason for the EU to make a special case for something. With Fox it's the Galileo system. He says we have particular expertise, we've paid a lot of money already and we have ground stations on Ascension island and The Falklands. The EU are adamant we're about to become a third country and will have to apply for access like any other.
When Fox says "Britain has played a major role in developing Galileo" what he means is they were built in the UK by Surrey Satellite Technology in Guildford, a company owned by Airbus (HERE) according to the BBC. It's the same as the "British" car industry, an illusion.
Of course for Fox and quite a lot of commenters it's a sign of the EU's intransigence and their intention to punish us. One or two people actually think the EU have always hated us.
There is a game of bluff, counter bluff and brinkmanship going on over the 10 billion Euro Galileo programme with this article in The Economist (HERE) suggesting we are struggling to stay in it. Meanwhile, the government are formally proposing a British rival to Galileo (HERE) with an announcement that "Government confirms UK Space Agency will lead work to develop options for a British Global Navigation Satellite System". The BBC report that this would cost £5 billion "tops" (HERE). I can't really believe we need our own system - who do we think we are? And we don't have any launch capability anyway.
Finally, this morning a Professor Gwythian Prins from the LSE was on Radio 4 urging the government to commit to a British GPS system saying the EU are "hostile" to us. Anyone named Gwythian Prins doesn't really deserve to be taken seriously but the BBC gave him airtime. He is a colonial scholar apparently and penned this article (HERE) on "Why leaving the EU and returning to the Anglosphere is a victory for the many over the few" - an item ridiculed by his colleagues.
He is a raving Brexiteer as you can see from this extract:
"On the EU, [his analysis] is that its health has been on the slide since the turn of the century and especially since the fateful introduction of the euro. Adding yet further complexity to the EU is producing negative marginal utility and pushing the entire project into the zone of risk of collapse. On the Anglosphere and Commonwealth, the main finding is that added complexity is yielding rising marginal gains".
And this:
"The Commonwealth has benefitted formatively and indispensably from the leadership of HM the Queen. From her discreet defusing of delicate political crises over the years (Ghana, South Africa etc.) to today’s visionary and inclusive Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy global tree-planting programme, our debt to Her Majesty over nearly 70 years is deep and broad. During her reign, the Commonwealth has become one of the most solidly grounded global alliances of shared interests. Her loyalty and efforts mean that the returning prodigal, Britain, has somewhere exceptional to come home".
So, his thoughts on Galileo are not really a surprise are they? He is still living in 1948.
