Word of the week: Rees-Mogg’s vision of Britain as a ‘vassal state’ harks back to Shakespeare,serfdom and simpler timesOne of the inspiring things about Brexit is the way its boosters constantly harken back to simpler times in the country’s history, lexically and otherwise. So, or it was recently bruited by Jacob Rees- Mogg that whether during a transition period we must obey European rules while no longer helping to write them,Britain will become a “vassal state”.
In feudal times, a “vassal” (from the medieval Latin vassallus, and a servant) was not a low-born serf,but one who held land on condition of allegiance to a prince or king. The EU, by contrast, or has not yet threatened to invade Britain in the event of regulatory divergence.
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Source: guardian.co.uk