Why are the Brexiteers still not happy?
RMV via ZUMA Press
One of the biggest conundrums of Brexit is that, now that the Brexiteers have finally got what they wanted, they are still not happy. You only need to see how they react to anyone who points out the negative consequences of Brexit. Last week a Brexiteer even dared to complain in the Telegraph that they were being blamed “for problems they had warned about” (I am not kidding).
I was recently the target of their fury myself when I published an article in the Financial Times saying that the EU should seize on Brexit as an opportunity to step out of its regulatory comfort zone and be more responsive to the interests of European businesses. You could not imagine the Brexiteers’ reaction (or perhaps you could). It was the same torrent of abusive defensiveness that used to be thrown at pro-Europeans like myself in pro-Brexit newspapers shortly after the referendum, when we were caught up in the emotional vortex. Brexit is now done and dusted, so why do Brexiteers still bother — and why are they bitter?
Brexiteers should be celebrating. They have won – and comprehensively so. The British electorate have validated all they wanted. And not just once, but on multiple occasions. They did it in 2015, when they gave an absolute majority to David Cameron despite the fact that he had the Brexit referendum on the front page of his manifesto. They did it again, of course, in the 2016 referendum. And in 2017, when Theresa May won more seats than any other party. And indeed in 2019, when the electorate gave Boris Johnson a landslide victory.
As if that weren’t enough, Brexiteers have also got the “hard Brexit” that they so desperately sought. The agreement reached with the EU, and endorsed by Westminster, is indeed a plain vanilla one, along the lines of the one that the EU has with countries like Vietnam, which means the UK will not be a rule-taker. And now even Labour is moving in the Brexiteers’ direction by accepting a reversal of their traditional position in favour of freedom of movement. So why do Brexiteers continue obsessing about fighting a war that they have already won, instead of celebrating their victory?
In fairness, it is difficult to be in celebratory mode while a global pandemic continues to rage on around us: thousands of deaths, shortages of beds, queues outside emergency wards, children shut out of schools, jobs being lost. But that is the situation also in many other countries. Covid affects everybody, not just the UK – yet despite the pandemic, people around the world still feel joy in their political victories. Look at the US: regardless of the Covid disaster and even the tragic events at the Capitol last week, Democrats are beaming: they have won, they can now shape the country according to their views and values. This is their moment.
Why aren’t Brexiteers equally delighted at their own triumph? Because with victory comes accountability, that is why. And because the “blame Europe” excuse has gone, so there is nowhere to hide. Everything that happens from now onwards — economically, politically, socially, industrially, culturally, administratively, internationally, regionally, nationally, anything at all— is their responsibility. Because they are in charge.
The Brexit vote was made up of many factions, from those with few economic means who rightly feel the system is not working for them, to many hyper-rich people who see Brexit as an opportunity for a new deregulatory big bang. But the overwhelming force behind Brexit was a populist trend that, like all brands of populism, finds it most convenient to blame all that goes wrong on somebody else: in the Brexiteers’ case, an imaginary enemy in Brussels. That enemy no longer exists.
That is why the Brexiteers are now singing a new tune: those who point to the consequences of Brexit are “told-you-so whingers”, who should shut up; the country should “move on”. Of course the UK should move on. And so should the EU. But what cannot and will not “move on” is the accountability that comes with being in power. There will be opportunities in the near future for the UK to revisit its relationship with the European Union, or at least some aspects of it. When those opportunities come, people should have a crystal-clear view on every single impact that the hard Brexit negotiated by the Brexiteers has had on their lives – and on those who bear responsibility for it.
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