Tag: brexit

The Brexit vote was 8 years ago.

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This showed up in my feed today.

From a report published a the start of the year:

The UK has 1.8m fewer jobs now that it would have been had Brexit not happened – a drop of 4.8 per cent. The average Briton is nearly £2,000 worse off as a result of Brexit. The UK real Gross Value Added (GVA) – a measure of the size of the economy – is approximately £140bn less in 2023 than it would have been had the UK opted to remain in the Customs Union and Single Market – a drop of six per cent. Brexit has also made the cost-of-living crisis more severe in the UK. Analysis shows that 30% of the increase in food prices between December 2019 and March 2023 could be attributed to the effects of Brexit.

It made me think of all that happened in 8 years. Cameron, May, Boris, Lettucehead (Truss), and Rish!. The Duke and the Queen died. Covid. Trump. Ukraine. Gaza. It’s been a rough decade.

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Brexit fatigue

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So it happened. Boris banged a gong and had beef-and-stilton-filled mini yorkshire puds. Nigel was smug but didn’t get his booze and fireworks because of council ordnance bans. A new 50p coin was (re-)issued. A “we’re sorry, we’ll be back” message was beamed on the the white cliffs of Dover.

While the world didn’t end from one day to the next, the “real” fun hasn’t begun yet. We’re in the transition period now. Things kind of stay the same. We still pay EU dues, but have no representation in parliament. Now, the government really needs to get all its long-term agreements sorted out before the timer runs out. Boris is already trying to be bombastic, but he’s soon going to realize that the “position of power” he’s claiming to have exists only in his head and not in the real world. The US is already salivating at the prospect of having access to the NHS (to raise drug prices) and food markets (to dump less regulated products like chlorinated chicken).

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Vote early, vote often!

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MPs voted by 438 to 20 to have a pre-Christmas election in what is expected to be the most unpredictable contest in a generation.

After Johnson failed to take the UK out of the EU on October 31 as promised, the major battle line will be drawn along on the subject of Brexit. Sadly, he didn’t die in a ditch. Yet another promise that wasn’t upheld.

The Conservatives will campaign to get Brexit done by pushing through Johnson’s deal, while Labour is promising a second referendum to let the people resolve the EU question.

The Brexit party will try to outgun the Tories by arguing for a no deal Brexit, while the Liberal Democrats will seek remain votes from Labour by pledging to revoke article 50.

God knows how the vote will be split once everything is tallied.

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