AS we awaited Brexit and the arrival of a new decade five years ago, no one had any idea that within weeks we would be plunged into a pandemic.
Boris Johnson’s government was cruelly robbed of its chance to show how Britain could take advantage of its newfound freedom outside the EU.
GettyAggrieved Remainers rarely see the underbelly of the crumbling EU as they glide to and from their Tuscan villas[/caption]
AFPIn once-placid Sweden, gangs now fight each other with grenades[/caption]
GettyGermany, where one in three long-distance trains is late, outdoes even Britain[/caption]
Needless to say, however, Covid-19 didn’t stop frustrated Remainers trying to blame absolutely everything on Brexit.
Empty supermarket shelves, rising global inflation, economic stagnation — all were apparently caused not by global supply chains being interrupted by lockdown, but by Britain’s “self-harming” decision to leave the EU.
It is true that economic growth in Britain has ground to a halt — a promising economic recovery in the spring being snuffed out by the current Labour Government.
After much consideration, I had voted Remain in the 2016 referendum.
I thought there were good arguments for both sides, but eventually came down on what at the time seemed the safer option.
I became appalled, however, by the behaviour of Remainers who refused to accept the vote.
From the morning after the result, they settled on trying to undermine it by trying to spin the yarn that, while Britain had inexplicably turned itself into an economic basket case, as well as descending into a racist, xenophobic hellhole, a prosperous and civilised EU was sailing off into the sunset without us.
It is true that economic growth in Britain has ground to a halt — a promising economic recovery in the spring being snuffed out by the current Labour Government.
We have deep-seated social problems in parts of the country, as seen in the summer’s riots.
We have had a cost-of-living crisis and the NHS is on its knees.
But you don’t have to look far across the Channel to realise that the Remainers’ fantasy of an EU powering ahead without us is bunkum.
Britain and Europe are locked together in a cycle of low growth, high debt and stagnant productivity.
The failure of economies all over Europe is creating social tensions — made far worse by uncontrolled migration — and undermining public services everywhere.
Think UK politics are rancid and chaotic?
Look to Germany, where the government has just collapsed, or to France, where our old friend Michel Barnier has just been thrown out of his job as Prime Minister.
Tempting though it is to enjoy Barnier’s fate, on the issue which precipitated it, he was absolutely right: France desperately needs to cut public spending or it faces national bankruptcy.
Tuscan villas
Think Britain is racist and xenophobic?
We don’t even have a functioning far-right party.
Even the anti-migrant rhetoric from mainstream parties across Europe is far richer than anything that you will hear in UK politics.
The less savoury elements of Alternative fur Deutschland might soon be pulling the strings in Europe’s largest and most powerful country.
Want to experience dysfunctional trains?
Germany, where one in three long-distance trains is late, outdoes even Britain.
And the much-admired French system is far from what it is cracked up to be.
Two years ago, I had to take six trains in a week — four were more than half an hour late and one didn’t arrive at all, with zero explanation.
Overloaded hospitals?
We saw how well Italy coped during Covid, and it has since been forced to borrow 500 doctors from socialist Cuba just to prop up its desperately short-staffed public health system.
Even before the pandemic, the Netherlands’ public hospitals had so little room in paediatric units that the country was forced to send sick children to Belgium.
Aggrieved Remainers rarely see the underbelly of the EU as they glide to and from their Tuscan villas.
What about crime?
In once-placid Sweden, gangs now fight each other with grenades.
In the Netherlands, the consequence of decades of liberal drugs laws was the six-year Marengo trial, in which Moroccan drug dealers were finally brought to heel, though not before the deaths of a string of informers, a lawyer and TV journalist.
The identity of the judge had to be kept secret.
Aggrieved Remainers rarely see the underbelly of the EU as they glide to and from their Tuscan villas.
They think of Europe as the epitome of civilised values because they are drunk on their holiday experiences.
They remember the nice dinner they had at a restaurant in the Dordogne — not the fact the French these days gobble down as much junk food as Britons do.
In Emmanuel Macron’s home town, Amiens, one in six businesses is now a fast-food outlet.
At least Britain, according to UN data, has the cheapest food in Europe — not that you would know that from listening to Remoaners who still try to convince us that Brexit has made eating unaffordable.
The best argument for Brexit is that it would allow us to escape Europe’s trajectory of low growth by becoming a business-friendly Singapore on Thames.
The pandemic thwarted that initially, but it is not too late.
While the problems of Brexit, such as greater friction in trade, were always going to be front end-loaded, the advantages were always going to be longer-term.
One thing is for sure: there is no point in lumbering along as just another European social democracy.
Unless we are prepared to do something different, Brexit will have been a lot of pain for no gain.
Whether our current Government is the one to seize the day is another matter.
Far From Eutopia: How Europe Is Failing – And Britain Could Do Better, by Ross Clark, is published by Abacus Books on January 23.
AFPIn France, our old friend Michel Barnier has just been thrown out of his job as Prime Minister[/caption]
AFPWe saw how well Italy coped during Covid, and it has since been forced to borrow 500 doctors from Cuba just to prop up its desperately short-staffed public health system[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
