04 February 2023 , 10:54
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WHERE was the bonging of Big Ben and pealing of church bells to celebrate the third anniversary of our glorious escape from those evil EU slavemasters?
Was I the only one to lapse into a coma this week and miss the usual suspects banging on about how right they were to set Britain on a golden road to prosperity?
Or did everyone else also hear a stony silence from the Brexit ringleaders, unable to defend Britain’s most catastrophic act of self-harm since Thatcher flogged our public utilities to City spivs.
Mind you, as the International Monetary Fund predicts the UK will perform worse this year than any other major economy, citing Brexit as a major cause, what was there to say?
Rishi Sunak muttered something which sounded like a Fast Show sketch: “Whether it’s leading Europe’s fastest vaccine rollout, striking trade deals with over 70 countries or taking back control of our borders, we have forged a path as an independent nation with confidence.”
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Oh dear. Is that it?
The vaccine was speedy because we had the NHS database, the trade deals have either replicated existing EU ones or been of minuscule benefit, like the one with Australia that will see GDP rise by less than 0.1% a year, and we were told a pact with America would be a doddle but it’s nowhere in sight.
As for taking back control of our borders, how’s that going? Asking for a friend in Dover. Brexit did hand the EU control of their borders, which is why Brits face lengthy passport queues and Eurostar leaves a third of its seats empty due to crippling delays.
Back in 2016, anyone pointing out the economic damage this ill-thought-out jingoistic fantasy would cause were told they were fact inventors who were part of Project Fear.
So let’s look at the facts three years on from freedom day: trade has fallen by almost 20%, Brexit has added 6% to food prices, and inflation and energy is more costly here than anywhere in Europe.
Economists calculate EU withdrawal is costing the UK £100billion a year, one of the reasons being businesses are strangled by the very red tape Leavers wanted to be rid of. Ours will be the only major country with negative growth this year and the only one whose economy is smaller now than it was before Covid.
Our productivity has slumped by 4% because we have alarming gaps in the workforce, partly due to Europeans staying away. Even with the increased immigration from other parts of the world we are 330,000 down on immigrant workers needed to do key jobs.
And the British nation knows this. Hence a survey that shows of 632 UK constituencies, only one has more people in it who now think Brexit was a good idea than a bad one.
It still baffles me that millions of sane voters fell for the guff spouted by proven liars like Boris Johnson, right-wing extremists like Nigel Farage, and intellectual mediocrities like Jacob Rees-Mogg.
We can’t turn back the clock. We have to make the best of an awful hand, as high-profile Brexiteers never tire of telling us. But wouldn’t it be nice if those same shysters, many of whom made a fortune out of Brexit, admitted that they were guilty of either criminal deception or rank stupidity?
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Then disappeared from public view for good.