Late last year, Groupe Eurotunnel, the Anglo-French operator of the Channel Tunnel, announced a Brexit rebrand. It would now be called Getlink, a corporate identity that, by yoking together two words of suitably Middle English origin, would advertise its Anglo-Saxon credentials. Brute business realities dictated the shift to an English idiom.
A quarter of the trade between the UK and continental Europe flows through the Channel Tunnel, as does most of the Republic of Ireland’s road freight into mainland European Union markets. The company’s shares fell sharply after the Brexit referendum and it needs to generate new revenue streams. It plans to install power cables in the tunnel to carry electricity between France and the UK, a major investment that will require the support of British-based investors and customers, including the Leave-voting communities of Kent. In Brexit Britain, the language of critical infrastructure is politically charged.
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