Brexit - People vs. Politicians
Apr 30 2023 The Guardian
On Brexit, will no one in the major parties admit that Britain has blundered?
William Keegan, who wrote this piece, says that when he was waiting for spare parts for his Fiat, Tennyson’s poem came to his mind,
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward.
All in the valley of Death,
Rode the six hundred.
The two major parties refuse to say that Brexit was a bad decision, and stubbornly deny the scale of the economic disaster. The public on the other hand have seen through the lies; a recent study indicates that 59% of respondents to a poll say Brexit has made Great Britain worse off; and 55% say Brexit was “a mistake”.
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William Keegan was thinking of Tennyson. In my head, as I was reading the piece, the headline morphed into “Will no one rid me of this troublesome Brexit”. I actually had to go back and check what it really said.
Anyway, that got me thinking, who would say this, or more to the point, who would not?
Keir Starmer is probably thinking that, but does not say it, probably due to political calculations, or just because he is a politician. A Statesman would see the fact and tell it to the public, and the public would probably reward the honesty.
Rishi Sunak, being a brexiteer, can’t say that without admitting that their Leave campaign was based on plain lies and misinformation. But I bet, he would love to deal with something else than Brexit and its economic results.
And it seems that the British public is tired of the queues in Dover and issues with “EU-UK supply chains”, and is really saying “Who will rid us of this troublesome Brexit”.
The local elections are coming up, so we’ll see how this will be reflected in the results, and in the inevitable discussions in the aftermath.
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Anyway, not everything is rotten in the state of the United Kingdom, the coronation of King Charles III will give a feelgood distraction from politics and economics, and something else to talk about, at least for a day or two.
