‘When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around’.
The iconic opening words from ‘Love Actually’. Each year since its release in 2003, this has been my favourite Christmas film. Released while 9/11 was still fresh in our minds, it was the quintessential, British ‘feel good’ film that reassured us that all was ‘right’ with the world.
Fifteen years on, watching ‘Love Actually’, didn’t bring about those feelings of happiness and joy, instead it brought home with stark clarity the troubled and divided times that we now live. Actual tears dripped down my face, as I thought of past Christmases, a longing and nostalgia, to go back to a time before Brexit divided us as a nation.
It would seem that I am not the only person, who has made the connection between ‘Love Actually’ and ‘Brexit’. Dutch MP Kees Verhoeven, and the German MEP Terry Reintke have posted their own version of ‘that’ scene between Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Mark (Andrew Lincoln). Posting a plea for the UK to stay in the UK, telling us how much we will be missed!
For me personally, as I watched tears streaming, I was conscious of how we have taken for granted the way in which our lives are interconnected with our European and American counterparts. The love story of ‘Jamie and Auriela’, who met and fell in love in a cottage in France, despite neither being able to understand a word the other was saying (typical Brit).
Colin and his journey to Wisconsin, to find a woman who would finally find him attractive.
Despite being a quintessentially British film, it highlighted the way in which both people and love cross borders, yet Theresa May is adamant in her determination to end the free movement of people. For me this is why Brexit goes against everything that I believe in. My values, beliefs, hopes and aspirations not only for myself but for my children and my children’s children.
Already Brexit has altered us as a nation, I truly cannot imagine if Brexit goes ahead as planned, how we will heal and become a ‘United Kingdom’ once more.