take back control
Exactly what duration is a long time in politics and didn’t it used to be a year, or perhaps at least a month? Man, how I miss those days. However, the maelstrom we are all living through is not of recently-departed Librium Liz’s or the long-departed Kamikwasi’s making. No, when the historians of the future look back at the current madness they will draw direct lineage from the summer of 2016: Brexit.
Through a collection of lies and half-truths, from £350m per week for the NHS to Turkey joining the EU and all under the mantra of taking back control, Brexiters urged us to shake off controlling regulation and follow them to the sunny sovereign uplands where we, and we alone, would be the master of our own unfettered destiny. Remainers were spoilsports at best and the self-serving liberal elite at worst.
Sadly, the last six years have witnessed the shattering of this delusion and our chickens have come home to roost. We have been dealt the rudest of reminders that in our connected, interdependent and (relatively) unified world there is no such thing as pure, dogmatic sovereignty. Every nation has to accommodate its neighbours, the global economy and reality. No country, let alone its transitory government, can do what it likes and this lesson has been taught to us, not by the EU, but by the markets. As it transpires, it’s the money markets that have taken back control and you rail against them at your peril.
Ms Truss’s maverick fundamentalist plan, Trussonomics, where you can get away with any amount of unfunded tax cuts without asking those whom you expect to lend you the actual cash, has been called time upon. The irony is that it was stress-tested and found wanting by the very force it venerates – the free market. Our international reputation lies in tatters and the leavers’ mirage of an island ruling the world’s oceans has finally sunk without trace.
