By Harry Mottram: Back in 2016 I attended a number of trade shows in Europe and the UK for business publications as a journalist. The Brexit vote would come up in conversation and not once in scores of chats did I find anyone that thinking leaving the EU was a good idea. Most business people didn’t even get the logic behind it and on the continent there was disbelief the British could commit self-harm. Since then and since the fall-out from Brexit and its economic effects there’s been a slow but growing gut feeling in a majority of people that those business people in 2016 had a point.
The Brexit vote was close and the received wisdom is it was Boris ‘what won it.’ He famously wrote two opinion pieces – one for and one against – in the Telegraph – choosing the leave argument as the best way he would become prime minister. If a new referendum was held now it’s likely to go the other way according to opinion polls – but both Labour and the Conservatives are currently in denial despite its hit on the British economy. Their views are based on the fear the public would punish them if they reversed the 2016 vote. That idea seems to be out of date. And now with the man that delivered Brexit and won an 80 seat majority to ‘get Brexit done’ leaving parliament the Brexit project is now surely having a slow death.
If Labour win the next election in 2024 I suspect they will renegotiate the Brexit deal and using a form of words will effectively re-join the EU’s Single Market and potentially change the travel arrangements including the right to work in fellow EU countries in line with the EU. It would immediately solve several problems created by Brexit – although the economic hang-over would continue for a while.
Johnson has charisma is spades – especially compared to Kier Starmer and Rishi Sunak – but his personality was his downfall. His rise and fall also reflects badly on those who saw him as a Tory winner but turned a blind eye to his flaws. He would have been fine until Party Gate when not only his own MPs began to lose faith in his ability to tell the truth but the Great British public did as well – and since then there was no chance of a come-back as too many suffered during the Covid Crisis. His resignation as PM was forced by his own cabinet which resulted in the Liz Truss disaster – and the Cost of Living Crisis. Whatever Sunak does – and he is clearly a more professional manager – his administration is doomed and cannot win the next election. It’s an undignified end to Johnson’s political career – but entirely with in his personality as someone who puts himself first, is unreliable with the truth and blames everyone else for his errors.
Rapscallion Magazine is an online publication edited by Harry Mottram
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