One year on: Britain is still in denial
The rusty cogs of government have finally begun to creak into life as the Brexit negotiations begin, and people finally have to put their money (some say £350 million for the NHS and some say a £100 billion EU divorce bill) where their mouth is.
A lot has happened in just a year since the shocking result. Of course, there was division and anger and then just confusion over what Brexit means. There was a new Prime Minister in Theresa May, who promised not only Brexit but Red, White and Blue Brexit, which would surely give the EU stationers some minor headaches finding the right colour paper. Finally, there was another twist in the tale as May then called a snap election expecting the kind of majority that Thatcher would have licked Michael Foot’s arse on TV to get.
Then another shock, May lost her majority after fronting one of the most lacklustre campaigns in living memory, maybe only tying with the kind of complacency of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic campaign. Rupert Murdoch then voided his bowels (he’s at that kind of age now) and the increasingly divided Britain was left with a hung parliament just over a week before the big bad negotiations with the wicked sneaky Europeans.
Of course, the brave white haired Knight, David Davis whose blood actually pumped red white and blue (a medical condition I’m told), lured the wicked foreigners into a trap by handing them exactly what they wanted on negotiating a trade deal only after the terms of divorce were set. Little did they know they were now exactly where he wanted them….
Or so some people would like to believe because despite the shocking incompetence shown by the leaders and negotiators Britain has still not accepted that it’s not going to get a better deal than what it has. Britain was already a privileged member of the EU with a lot of bargaining clout and was seemingly a leader considering its voting record on EU legislation often came out in its favour. However, of course, a lie repeated enough times about unelected democrats, angry fishermen, complaints from people who just could not get their heads around the metric system and “something, something those Polish are stealing our money, jobs and benefits”, here we are just as clueless as we’ve ever been.
Now we will lose all that influence we had, and we’ve already pretty much lost any reputation we had for being cool-headed and calculating. Britain will only get a deal where it has to lose something and not this tailored appeasement some Brexiters believe in. “They need us more than we need them”, they say showing a flimsy level of understanding of cooperation that Britain has been famous for in recent times and also of the nation’s diverse and globalised economy. Either way, concessions are going to have to be given back to the EU to secure our future relationship, which begs the question, is there really any point to all of this?
Of course, now some people are starting to catch on slowly as prices rise and businesses start to stall their decisions, waiting for an outcome. Unfortunately, Britain hasn’t realised it’s about to waste a huge amount of time and money that it’s ironically really going to need once the costs and effects of Brexit really hit home.
A lot has happened in just a year since the shocking result. Of course, there was division and anger and then just confusion over what Brexit means. There was a new Prime Minister in Theresa May, who promised not only Brexit but Red, White and Blue Brexit, which would surely give the EU stationers some minor headaches finding the right colour paper. Finally, there was another twist in the tale as May then called a snap election expecting the kind of majority that Thatcher would have licked Michael Foot’s arse on TV to get.
Then another shock, May lost her majority after fronting one of the most lacklustre campaigns in living memory, maybe only tying with the kind of complacency of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic campaign. Rupert Murdoch then voided his bowels (he’s at that kind of age now) and the increasingly divided Britain was left with a hung parliament just over a week before the big bad negotiations with the wicked sneaky Europeans.
Of course, the brave white haired Knight, David Davis whose blood actually pumped red white and blue (a medical condition I’m told), lured the wicked foreigners into a trap by handing them exactly what they wanted on negotiating a trade deal only after the terms of divorce were set. Little did they know they were now exactly where he wanted them….
Or so some people would like to believe because despite the shocking incompetence shown by the leaders and negotiators Britain has still not accepted that it’s not going to get a better deal than what it has. Britain was already a privileged member of the EU with a lot of bargaining clout and was seemingly a leader considering its voting record on EU legislation often came out in its favour. However, of course, a lie repeated enough times about unelected democrats, angry fishermen, complaints from people who just could not get their heads around the metric system and “something, something those Polish are stealing our money, jobs and benefits”, here we are just as clueless as we’ve ever been.
Now we will lose all that influence we had, and we’ve already pretty much lost any reputation we had for being cool-headed and calculating. Britain will only get a deal where it has to lose something and not this tailored appeasement some Brexiters believe in. “They need us more than we need them”, they say showing a flimsy level of understanding of cooperation that Britain has been famous for in recent times and also of the nation’s diverse and globalised economy. Either way, concessions are going to have to be given back to the EU to secure our future relationship, which begs the question, is there really any point to all of this?
Of course, now some people are starting to catch on slowly as prices rise and businesses start to stall their decisions, waiting for an outcome. Unfortunately, Britain hasn’t realised it’s about to waste a huge amount of time and money that it’s ironically really going to need once the costs and effects of Brexit really hit home.
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