A poll last week showed the public now thinks Brexit was a bad idea, by 51 per cent to 38, and this is before it has even happened in earnest. Of course it’s too late now.
The problem is lack of clarity about the real purpose of Brexit on the UK side”
Brexit was an exercise in internal Tory party management that catastrophically got out of hand and morphed into national tantrum and a vehicle for cynical and unscrupulous politicians, like Johnson, to drive to power by promising perpetual consumption of cake
Brexit has always been whipped out emotions in search of a purpose. Lately the purpose seem to have been found in the Britannia Unchained cookbook how to turn Britain into Singapore on Thames with quasi dictatorial government, emasculated civil society and nimble economy where idle British workers with fewer rights will be forced to compete with their European neighbours on pay and conditions. Hence the problem UK side has with the concept of even playing filed.
To the patriotically aroused masses this dish is served in the sauce of nationalism, exceptionalism and xenophobia to keep them sweet on their imaginary travel to the sunlit uplands while their destination seems to be a sweatshop off the shores of Europe.
So ran a recent comment on the web.
Sunak, Mogg and the other plutocrats of the Tory Party would love to turn Britain into Singapore: a hereditary dictatorship with no free media or independent judiciary.
Dyson of vacuum fame makes his stuff in Malaysia and lives in Singapore. Why? Low taxes and zero social security. Hip replacement? That’ll be $50,000. But that doesn’t matter to Dyson, the idea of the nation state is of passing interest to him, his wealth frees him from such trivia. Ditto Sunak, Mogg and any number of Russian oligarchs.
In forecasts to accompany this week’s spending review, the Office for Budget Responsibility envisages a no-deal Brexit dragging growth down by 2% next year, in addition to a GDP shortfall of around 4%, which is the cost of quitting the single market and customs union even with a deal. That is all on top of damage done by the coronavirus. Unemployment is currently forecast to reach 7.4% next year – 2.6 million people. In a no-deal Brexit scenario, that would be higher, too, perhaps by 300,000. If things go badly wrong there could be 4.2 million people jobless by 2022.
Boris Johnson has said that Britain will “prosper mightily” in the event that no trade deal is agreed with the EU before the end of the year. That hypothesis is coming dangerously close to being tested. And judging by the mass of Johnson claims over the years that have all led to disaster we may well be in for a very rough time.
