happy birthday, brexit
Many of you will have noted that today marks the third anniversary of our self-imposed European exile. The irony of that monumental decision is that Brexit has finally made good Europeans of us all, though not perhaps for the reasons Bojo, Farage, Sunak, Gove and Rees Mogg once envisaged. The recent trajectory of our two currencies is one example as we continue to move inexorably to sterling/euro parity. Another is the manner in which we used to sneer at the constant political turmoil in Southern Europe only to witness five prime ministers in recent years.
However, the most profound impact we’re having is how we are, diligently and with dogged devotion to duty, finally doing our bit to strengthen the ties that bind the remaining twenty-seven nations of the EU. Since 2016 support for leaving the oft-lambasted institution has tanked and you’ll be hard-put to find any talk of Frexit or Italexit. Europeans have taken one look across La Manche at decided: Nein, danke.
Political dysfunction. National acrimony. Isolationism. Increased bureaucracy. Imminent devolution. Economic malaise. These are the real world legacies of our journey to the sunlit uplands of Brexiters. The case was entirely contrived around nationalism and immigration and failed to take account of the blindingly obvs free-market case that should’ve recognised there were simply not enough realistic commercial opportunities elsewhere in the world to compensate for lost European trade.
Nowhere is the gap between the jingoistic rhetoric and reality clearer than in Northern Ireland. Leavers nonchalantly dismissed concerns over what appeared the reality: that there would have to be a border of sorts between the EU and Europe. It couldn’t be between NI and the republic. It couldn’t be down the Irish Sea. So where? The supposed protocol ‘solution’ angered, alienated everyone concerned and its illegal bill is about to be dispatched to the same parallel universe of its author, Liz Truss. And all of this in plain sight. Another unique problem created by Brexit rather than solved.
Our neighbours can see it and now, with only 32% now thinking it a good idea, so can we. They’ve drawn the obvious conclusion and who can blame them.
