This whole thing has been such a sad, depressing, miserable event for nigh on 5 years and it will continue to be so for another 10 at best, assuming we join EFTA under Starmer and begin a slow step to recovery - not that we will ever get back to where we were in terms of influence and reputation.
It's still just about possible to make a deal, albeit a very skinny deal. Let's hope there is something doable on airlines and radioactive isotopes. I know people who have cancer who might be in a terrible situation even without the Covid and other Brexit consequences impacting them.
It's a real shame for the generations about to enter the workforce that we have chosen to apparently allow them to dangle in the wind until they are almost in their 40's and their life direction is already largely set, so that the generation of current 6 year olds can
possibly reap some long term benefits and leapfrog them. Poor sods.
All over something that wasn't even an important issue until certain parties stirred it up.
EU membership just wasn't an issue for most until 2015.
most important issues facing Britain
(side issue - isn't it notable that the importance of the NHS has grown as austerity started to bite?)
Immigration
was an issue, but now people have become more educated about it in the last 4 years, following years of misinformation feeding on prejudice, as well as more understanding of it's importance/benefit it in itself seems now unimportant. That could be because Brexit took over from it for many, perhaps emphasising that Brexit was indeed primarily about immigration for most Leave voters.
Ipsos Mori 2015-19
My hope is that we all do some really deep dives in to the internal workings of ourselves as individuals to understand how we came to be in such an embarrassing state. Leave voters in particular, especially those who did not change their mind and actively attempt to reverse the mistake, owe that to the 16 million Remain voters, the 18+ million who could not vote, the circa (750k births x 15 years) 11 million yet to be born and even, to a lesser degree, the 12 million who did not vote. However, so should all of us, because had it been a different issue, we each might fall into the same traps of arrogance, hubris, laziness, misunderstanding, misplaced trust, ineptitude, prejudice, biases and cognitive dissonance that sees critical thinking fly out of the window in favour of base emotions and stupidity.
All we can do now is learn from this together. Leavers
must confront and acknowledge their failings and Remainers must learn too, not to be vitriolic or smug. There is no point saying 'I told you so' for the sake of it. While it was still reversible and there was hope that reason and common sense might prevail to allow another vote, as it has elsewhere previously in Europe, there was some potential merit to the anger, campaigning and protests. This was even true, if less so, while the talks and the transition period continued. Not so now. It is too late for Remainers to make any impact. Only Leave voters, the angry, betrayed, embarrassed ones (which should be something like 65% of them) can possibly have any sway now, but expecting them to march on Westminster in their millions as Remainers did, demanding an extension request to the transition period and some genuine sincere negotiations from HMG keeping us in the Single Market more or less, as was promised in 2016, is a long shot and most likely wouldn't work anyway. Still, it would be nice of them to try. I'd chip in some support.
As a nation we must learn some uncomfortable truths about ourselves, just as the Germans had to do when they lost their collective minds 80+ years ago. We can then go on to address the failings in our system of government and it's checks and balances, which contributed and exacerbated or individual failings rather than acted as checks against them. If we can do that and rediscover the importance of logic, reason and critical thinking, the insights that humanity's greatest minds have built on over thousands of years, then, maybe, there will be a real Brexit dividend.