What an absurdity that the City of London Corporation is complaining about the leadership of the Mayor of London in support of Britain’s independence from the socialists in Europe. The City of London Corporation runs the center part of London, including the financial center. It’s unhappy that the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who is the leader of the full span of London, is in favor of the British exit from the European Union, which faces a referendum in June. It calls Mayor Johnson’s emergence on this issue “unwelcome.”

The thing that gets us about this is that the City of London Corporation could well be the oldest local government corporation in the world (or even the Milky Way). Its “liberties and free customs” were described as “ancient” when they were vouchsafed in the Magna Carta, which was inked like 801 years ago, for crying out loud. One would think that a municipal corporation so venerable, with its enjoyment of its status enshrined in one of the most famous charters of liberty of all time, would have a little more self-confidence.

“Disappointing” is another word that Reuters reports is being used toward Mayor Johnson by Baron Mountevans, the current head of the City of London Corporation. He is also known as the Lord Mayor. Reuters quotes him as insisting that the City of London is “the leading international financial center in the world” and the “most cosmopolitan major business city in the world.” Yet, he kvetches, “a step backwards from an international position, which I think many would see this as, is unwelcome and unhelpful.”

Then again, too, many would not see the Brexit as a step backwards. We, for one, see it as a step forward. Mayor Johnson did not just fall off the turnip truck. He actually covered the European Union in the days when it first made its true intentions known. Britain is coming up on what could well be its last chance to escape the satrapy of socialism in Europe. We’re in the camp that reckons the future lies with the ideas of liberty and property most famously articulated in England and Scotland.

Our message to the Lord Mayor is “Buck up, Baron.” It may be that the Remain camp, which is the moniker of the faction that wants to stick with the European Union, thinks it can win this referendum by focusing on the negatives. But there’s a positive side to independence. Take it from New York. We wouldn’t want to say that the harassment Britain is facing from Brussels is exactly analogous to what we suffered under George III. But we did sever our bonds with an interfering regime and made a bet on independence and liberty. What a boon.