Quora Answer: Do the People of Singapore Want the British Back?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Do the people of Singapore want the British back?”

Why ever for?  We have surpassed Great Britain in standard of living, and in wealth.  What can the British do for us, that we have not already done better?  If we want them back, it would be as investors and tourists.  You cannot turn back 50 years of independence.

It is arguable if most people in Singapore actually wanted independence back in the 1950s.  There was agitation for more self-governance, or even autonomy.  The people of Singapore understood then, that should the British pull out, this island did not have the economic depth, or the means to survive as it was.  Independence was achieved through a merger with Malaysia.  Separation was an unwanted reality, but Singapore not only survived, it prospered.  The British abandoned us then.

Now, Singapore is one of the major financial centres in the world, one of the wealthiest, most advanced nations, with a strong military and civil structure.  Why would we ant the British back?  In the half century that Singapore has prospered and grown, the United Kingdom has declined, and regressed.  It is a dead empire, harkening to lost glories.  What could the UK possibly offer us then?

If the question is economic growth, that is unlikely.  The UK have elected their own version of Donald Trump, a racist, misogynistic diplomatic bull in the EU china shop, who is busy destroying whatever semblance of continental unity, and alienating vast segments of the electorate through class and race warfare.  Singapore is a competitor with London as a global financial centre.  It is integrated within ASEAN as a founding member.  It has China on its doorstep.

If the question is military protection, that age is past.  The UK, according to the reports of its own Admiralty, has cut its defence budget to such an extent, under successive governments, both Conservative and Labour, that it is no longer in a position to enforce its interests in its near abroad, let alone an island at the other end of the world, in the middle of Southeast Asia.  Singapore has a larger tank, and fighter aircraft fleet than the UK.  We cannot depend on them for protection.

Singapore being part of the UK would only be a replay of the last stages of the British Empire, where she drained her colonies of wealth and resources to sustain her flailing foreign policy.  Singapore would be gutted financially to support a government that is focused on domestic survival.  When Great Britain cannot address the interests of Northern Ireland and Scotland, does anybody have confidence that she would care about our interests?

No sane person wants the return of British rule.  The Age of Brittania is history, and it should remain so.  Heaven forbid we be stuck with a Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, a Nigel Paul Farage, or a Jeremy Bernard Corbyn.