Had to venture onto Facebook today, and apparently I’d posted this cartoon from the New Yorker five years ago today:
Five years ahead of its time, if you ask me.
Like many of you, I am pretty floored by the speed and severity of this week’s events, and by how relatively muted the reaction outside of a few online communities seems to be. I’ve started writing a handful of posts and abandoned them all – a roundup of coverage of the fifth anniversary of Official Brexit Day, which was Friday, seemed less important than letting people talk about Elon Musk gaining control of many of the US’s IT systems or about what to do to soften the blow of the tariffs that are about to impact everyone’s daily lives.
(I also spent quite a lot of time applying for UK-based roles this weekend just to see if I can get more GBP-based income sooner rather than later, and caught up on season two of Severance.)
I will say this, however: Brexit has been a disaster. It’s made Britain poorer and weaker. The original referendum vote was 52%-48%, but today, 55% of Britons now believe Brexit was the wrong choice, and that it has had a major negative impact on many aspects of UK life:
The result of the non-binding Brexit referendum, and the very binding decision to go ahead with it, dictate everything that’s happening in UK politics. It is always Brexit Day over here, and will be until some government comes along that has the courage to truly re-set the terms of our relationship with the EU. It does not look like the current government has that courage. They are picking loose threads here and there, doing little bits of realignment, but rejoining is a non-starter. Honestly, it probably would be for the EU, too – why trust a Labour government’s promises today when a Reform one might sweep in sometime in 2029?
So for now, the country is going to be trapped in this vicious cycle it chose for itself, endlessly bumping up against the same Brexit issues and having the same Brexit arguments. It is quite possibly the most damaging decision a democratic society has made for itself in the post-war period.
Or at least, it was until this past November.
Five years from now, the US is likely to find itself trapped in a similar version of Groundhog Day – dealing with the isolationism, social unrest, and throttled prosperity that a plurality of citizens once endorsed.
Anyway, ready or not, here comes another working week. Keep your loved ones safe and your congressional reps on speed dial.
It’s Always February 2nd, and There’s Nothing I Can Do About ItPost + Comments (142)
