https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/21/opinion/brexit-disaster.html
"There’s a growing understanding in Britain that the country’s vote to quit the
European Union, a decisive moment in the international rise of reactionary
populism, was a grave error.
Just as critics predicted, Brexit has led to inflation, labor shortages,
business closures and travel snafus. It has created supply chain problems that
put the future of British car manufacturing in danger. Brexit has, in many
cases, turned travel between Europe and the U.K. into a punishing ordeal, as I
learned recently, spending hours in a chaotic passport control line when taking
the train from Paris to London. British musicians are finding it hard to tour
in Europe because of the costs and red tape associated with moving both people
and equipment across borders, which Elton John called “crucifying.”
According to the U.K.’s Office for Budget Responsibility, leaving the E.U. has
shaved 4 percent off Britain’s gross domestic product. The damage to Britain’s
economy, the O.B.R.’s chairman has said, is of the same “magnitude” as that
from the Covid pandemic.
All this pain and hassle has created an anti-Brexit majority in Britain.
According to a YouGov poll released this week, 57 percent of Britons say the
country was wrong to vote to leave the E.U., and a slight majority wants to
rejoin it. Even Nigel Farage, the former leader of the far-right U.K.
Independence Party sometimes known as “Mr. Brexit,” told the BBC in May,
“Brexit has failed.”
This mess was, of course, both predictable and predicted. That’s why I’ve been
struck, visiting the U.K. this summer, by the curious political taboo against
discussing how badly Brexit has gone, even among many who voted against it.
Seven years ago, Brexit was an early augur of the revolt against
cosmopolitanism that swept Donald Trump into power. (Trump even borrowed the
“Mr. Brexit” moniker for himself.) Both enterprises — Britain’s divorce from
the E.U. and Trump’s reign in the U.S. — turned out catastrophically. Both left
their countries fatigued and depleted. But while America can’t stop talking
about Trump, many in the U.K. can scarcely stand to think about Brexit."
Via Khurram Wadee and Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
