Boris Johnson's boast of a 'Global Britain' is taking a pounding amid series of crises
London (CNN)Britain's overseas reputation has been tarnished lately, and some of it is entirely self-inflicted.
From images of burly police officers wrestling women to the ground to claims of racism in the royal family,
accusations of Brexit rule-breaking and even a coronavirus variant
first detected in England and now spreading across the globe, the United
Kingdom is coming up tainted in the court of international opinion.
The
latest crisis came this weekend, when images of a crackdown on a
peaceful London vigil for a murdered woman were beamed around the world.
Patsy
Stevenson was photographed pinned down by two London Metropolitan
Police officers while attending a vigil for Sarah Everard, who was
killed earlier this month. The man accused of murdering Everard is a
constable in the same police force.
Stevenson
says she is still grappling with what happened to her. "I'm quite
small, and it was two very large male officers who sort of pulled me
back very quickly, and I hit the ground," she told ITV's "Good Morning
Britain" on Monday.
A
viral photo of woman prostrate on the ground, police officers astride
her back, is never a good look for any democracy, but this latest
shocker is just one in an increasing accumulation of PR own goals the UK
is belting into its own net, just as the country chases global partners
for post-Brexit trade.
Harry
and Meghan's recent bombshell allegations of racism in the royal family
have also shown how easily reputations, even those of a nation, can
become tarnished.
America's
much lauded young poet Amanda Gorman, whose eloquent prose was picked
by President Joe Biden to help usher him into power at his inauguration,
saw what some Brits did not.
"Meghan
was the Crown's greatest opportunity for change, regeneration, and
reconciliation in a new era," Gorman tweeted. "They didn't just maltreat
her light -- they missed out on it."
News
of the royal rumble even reached Biden's office, where press secretary
Jen Psaki praised the "courage" of Harry and Meghan for speaking out
about their struggles with mental health.
The
Queen attempted to remedy tensions through a Buckingham Palace
statement promising a private family examination of the "concerning"
racist claims, it has raised awkward questions in the nation's extended
family, the Commonwealth of Nations.
This
group of 54 nations of mostly former British territories -- many of
which are in Africa and the Caribbean -- contains around 2.4 billion
inhabitants, from a wide range of racial backgrounds. The royal family
has long relied on the Commonwealth for international support and
prestige.
To
paraphrase the Queen, looking back on the 1992 when Windsor Castle
caught fire and Princess Diana separated from Prince Charles, the UK is
having an "annus horribilis."
The
past year of Covid-19 pandemic reveals a country struggling to
reconcile the image of vigor that Prime Minister Boris Johnson cherishes
for the nation. The brutal reality is that due to a multitude of
government failings, the UK has among the highest fatality rates per capita globally and a higher death toll than any other European nation.
Johnson
finally scored plaudits in the UK for the fastest European rollout of
vaccines -- more than 35% of the nation has been given a first shot
compared to the EU average of 9%.
But
over the past few months, the more infectious B.1.17 strain of the
coronavirus, first discovered in England, has steadily driven many
European nations' infection rates to lockdown-inducing levels. On
Monday, the head of the CDC warned that B.1.17 would become the dominant
strain in the US within weeks.
Closer
to home, Johnson's government has again been accused of breaking the
rules of his Brexit deal with Brussels. On Monday, the EU launched legal action
against the UK after Johnson's unilateral attempt to extend a grace
period on food imports to Northern Ireland. A previous UK plan to
violate international law over Brexit was met with a swift rebuke from
Biden.
For
a nation that revels in reminiscing of bygone better days, the words of
one such anthem, "Rule Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves," resonates
less these days of riding a mighty swell and more of being lashed by
misfortune and misjudgement.
Not
so many governments ago, under Labour's charismatic leader Tony Blair,
the UK wore the moniker "Cool Britannia" with a confident swagger,
seemingly enjoying the tide of global goodwill just as it did in the
1960s when the Beatles took the world by storm.
Quite
when the UK's gloss began losing its sheen is hard to say. Blair
courted catastrophe when he backed the United States in the unpopular
2003 invasion of Iraq, but he held on to power until 2007, and kept the
illusion of popularity for a few years longer. But Blair never fully
recovered his much-valued international stature.
The
UK's current trajectory to today's trough of low international opinion
perhaps has its roots in Brexit, which made little sense to many
Europeans (and 48% of Britons). Perhaps now there's also the unfortunate
alignment of political incompetence during the pandemic. It's also
possible the roots of reputational decline are a whole lot deeper, and
more typical of faded empires.
Of
course, none of this accounts for large men in uniform kneeling across
women protesting violence against other women. The UK now has a wide
variety of perception woes that it must own and resolve for itself.
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