{"id":3947,"date":"2022-11-02T13:03:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T13:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/?p=3947"},"modified":"2022-11-02T13:03:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T13:03:48","slug":"brexit-finale-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/?p=3947","title":{"rendered":"Brexit: Finale at last!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The British public will have to face the repercussions of the sordid Brexit saga, mostly based on lies, during the pandemic times.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 31 December 2020, at 11 pm UK time and 12 pm Brussels time, four years, 27 weeks and two days after a referendum that split the UK almost down the middle in 2016, the curtains on the Brexit saga, finally came down, as the UK left the embrace of the European Union (EU) in a departure that was notably low key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most observers view the Brexit campaign, which claimed the job of two British prime ministers in its wake, as one built on lies and deceit. With public being misled and fed wrong and inflated information, the result was in favour of some politicians who acceded to the chair at No. 10, like Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his New Year message, British prime minister Boris Johnson largely ignored Brexit, an issue he arguably shaped more than any other politician. Instead he preferred to focus on the toll of Covid-19 and what he called \u201cthe grimness of 2020\u201d. It seemed a far cry from his 2019 message, when after his recent election victory, he had promised \u201ca fantastic year and a remarkable decade for our United Kingdom\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described the moment as \u2018amazing\u2019, citing what he said were boundless possibilities with trade and innovation, and UK was now \u201cfree to do trade deals around the world, and free to turbocharge our ambition to be a science superpower\u201d. He added: \u201cWe have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians\u2019 reactions<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians in Britain and the EU expressed both triumph and bitter regret after the UK\u2019s Brexit transition period ended on New Year\u2019s Eve. Though most of the Conservative leaders and politicians like Nigel Farage exulted in their messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, across the Channel, the French president Emmanuel Macron in his new year\u2019s address, expressed regret. \u201cThe United Kingdom remains our neighbour but also our friend and ally,\u201d he said. \u201cThis choice of leaving Europe, this Brexit, was the child of European malaise and lots of lies and false promises.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearer home in Scotland, which had voted \u2018Remain\u2019 strongly in the 2016 Brexit referendum, the pro-independence Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, promised to continue the Scottish independence drive, she tweeted: \u201cScotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.\u201d In a retort Johnson said the Scots could continue to dream, as this one will not be fulfilled during this generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigel Farage, who played a key role in the 2016 referendum, tweeted: \u201c25 years ago they all laughed at me. Well, they\u2019re not laughing now.\u201d The UK\u2019s chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, said the UK had a \u201cgreat future before us\u201d with the chance to \u201cbuild a better country for us all\u201d. The Conservative MP Bill Cash, who has campaigned for Brexit for decades, said it was a \u201cvictory for democracy and sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UK media coverage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\u2019s Eurosceptic newspapers, after decades of bashing Brussels, celebrated victory in the year\u2019s first day editions after the Brexit transition period ended, but pro-EU outlets dwelt on a \u201cday of sadness\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian\u2019s<\/em> headline focused on Britain finally quitting the EU in the midst of a \u201ccrisis, without fanfare\u201d, an editorial called Brexit a \u201ctragic national error\u201d. The Times <\/em>splashed Johnson\u2019s \u201cupbeat new year\u2019s message\u201d celebrating an \u201camazing\u201d future for the UK. The online Independent<\/em> ran a satirical cartoon portraying leading Brexiteers as various species of fish. The front page of the Daily Express<\/em> showed a picture of the White Cliffs of Dover and the headline \u201cOur future. Our Britain. Our destiny\u201d. The Sun<\/em> relegated the Brexit story to a front-page box headlined \u201cPM: Britain Brexpects\u201d, reporting Johnson\u2019s words that Brexit marked a moment for national renewal in which the country would \u201cturbocharge\u201d scientific innovation. \u201cWelcome to 2021 \u2013 and two reasons to hope for a much brighter future,\u201d ran the Daily Telegraph<\/em> headline, where Johnson made his name as a Brussels-bashing Europe correspondent in the 1990s. The Daily Mail<\/em> preferred to focus entirely on the pandemic-related news, coolly ignoring the Brexit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

View from the Europe<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several European commentators weighed in on what Britain\u2019s departure from the EU means. Most viewed its reputation for pragmatism and probity shredded by a campaign which they saw as profoundly populist and dangerously dishonest, and predicted an uncertain future for the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian<\/em> reported Rem Korteweg, of the Clingendael Institute thinktank in the Netherlands, as saying \u201cFor us, the UK has always been seen as like-minded: economically progressive, politically stable, respect for the rule of law \u2013 a beacon of western liberal democracy, \u2026 which has been seriously hit by the past four years. Brexit is an exercise in emotion, not rationality; in choosing your own facts. And it\u2019s not clear how it will end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\u2019s long-polished pragmatic image had been \u201cseriously tarnished\u201d, Nicolai von Ondarza, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told The Guardian<\/em>. But trust in the UK, too, had taken a heavy battering on the Brexit rollercoaster, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201csovereignty\u201d in whose name Brexit was done remained, essentially, a myth, Jean-Dominique Giuliani, of the Robert Schuman Foundation in France, told The Guardian<\/em>. \u2018Take back control\u2019 is a nationalist, populist slogan that ignores the reality of an interdependent world. Our maritime neighbour will be much weakened,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German historian Helene von Bismarck doubted whether Brexit would end what she described as a very British brand of populism. \u201cBritish populism is a political method, not an ideology, and it does not become redundant with Brexit,\u201d she said. She identified two key elements in this method: an emotionalisation and over-simplification of highly complex issues, such as Brexit, the Covid pandemic or migration, and a reliance on bogeymen or enemies at home and abroad. \u201cPopulists depend on enemies, real or imagined, to legitimise their actions and deflect from their own shortcomings,\u201d she said. If the EU has been the \u201cenemy abroad\u201d since 2016, it will steadily be replaced by \u201cenemies within\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elvire Fabry, of France\u2019s Institut Jacques Delors, told The Guardian<\/em> that the past four years had shown Europeans and Britons \u201cjust how little we really knew each other\u201d. They had also revealed, she said, the fragility of a parliamentary system seen by many on the continent as a point of reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Der Spiegel<\/em>, Nikolaus Blome opined that there was \u201cabsolutely nothing good about Brexit \u2026 which would never have happened had Conservative politicians not, to a quite unprecedented degree, deceived and lied to their people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the UK has now signed trade agreements with 62 countries, the latest one with Turkey, after agreements with Japan, Canada, Switzerland and Norway were secured earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also the news of the British prime minister\u2019s father Stanley confirming that he is applying for a French passport came as a shot in the arm of anti-Brexit lobby. Stanley Johnson described himself as a French not a British, he was one of the first UK civil servants to work in Brussels after Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The critics are also warning of how the individuals and businesses both in the UK and beyond may face a dizzying new array of red tape, a good deal of it still to be worked out. In addition, the parting of ways could also have major constitutional repercussions for the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member the Republic of Ireland, remains more closely tied to the bloc\u2019s economy under the divorce terms, a status some fear could pull it away from the rest of the UK, just like Scotland, which is clamouring for independence, and if any of them succeed, then the United may fall like a house made of play cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The British public will have to face the repercussions of the sordid Brexit saga, mostly based on lies, during the pandemic times. On 31 December 2020, at 11 pm UK time and 12 pm Brussels time, four years, 27 weeks and two days after a referendum that split the UK almost down the middle in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":227,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3948,"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions\/3948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asadmirza.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}