The Thinking ‘Kat: 10 Years of Brexit
Brexit is the massive elephant that lurks in every room of every political establishment in Britain. It has underpinned – and undermined – every decision, vote, and policy for the past decade. It is one of the worst own-goals in UK political history, and 10 years on from the referendum that gave us Brexit, there’s little to suggest it can be made to work.
My consistent thought with Brexit is that it was a bad idea, that was then badly executed. It was also a flawed referendum, with misinformation from both sides. It was the ‘will of the people’, but that will has changed, with many former Brexiteers now preferring to rejoin the EU, yet no government is prepared to suggest that possibility. It seems that the results of that original referendum are cast in stone, with remaining Brexiteers insisting it cannot be challenged, lest we undermine democracy (never mind that we hold regular elections all the time).
Brexit cost then-PM David Cameron his job. He campaigned to remain, and resigned shortly after the vote. His successor, Theresa May, inherited a shambles that she could not contain, and she too stepped aside, paving the way for the worst Prime Minister in living memory, ardent pro-Brexit charlatan Boris Johnson. He too failed to make Brexit work. His successor, Liz Truss, was only in office for six weeks, and in that time nearly destroyed the economy. Rishi Sunak came in and… dithered.
Labour won the next General Election, but two years on, Keir Starmer has been hounded out of office. Again, this seems less to do with Brexit, and more to do with media interests, but what is quite interesting is that since that ill-fated, flawed referendum in 2016, Britain has gotten through six prime ministers. At some stage soon, we’ll be on our seventh. Prior to that vote, we had seven prime ministers, spanning nearly 50 years. Instability has become commonplace in our political system, and Brexit is at the core of that.
Are we better off on our own? Not particularly. The issue that the media trumpets, immigration, is no better, and it’s arguably got worse, now that we cannot coordinate border control and security with a bloc of like-minded nations. Trade has been impacted, and not for the better. Defenders of Brexit will point to the covid pandemic and the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but these issues affected the globe; they cannot be used to swipe all of Brexit’s problems under the carpet.
My hope is that one day, we’ll get another referendum. The people who will most feel the long-term harm of Brexit are the children of today, and those who were too young to vote the first time around. What they deserve is the chance to have a say in their futures, and reverse this folly. Here’s hoping that somewhere among our political parties is someone brave enough to push this on the campaign trail.
‘Kat Comments