In conversation with Professor Chris Grey. The state of play 6 1/2 years since the Brexit referendum. Spoiler alert: It isn't pretty
Nothing will change under a Conservative government
Leading commentator, broadcaster & blogger Professor Chris Grey joins us for a deep dive into the state of Brexit, the state of the UK and what the future might hold.
It’s still an almighty mess, still riddled with contradictions and the legacy of lies, cakeism and rejection of expertise. But Sunak has come to power via a promise of economic competence. Given the growing salience of the economy, Brexiteers have fewer places to hide. Is the conspiracy of silence about Brexit, the great Taboo of modern British life, about to break? Chris Grey labels it ‘Lady Chatterley’s Brexit’.
The economic consequences are now obvious to almost everybody. But if Brexit was solely about economics it would never have happened in the first place. The politics are still poisonous.
Is the UK capable of negotiating a closer arrangement with the EU? ‘Not while there is a Conservative government.’
Whatever about the promises of the Brexiteers, what they thought Brexit was for, what it could deliver, nobody voted for a permanently divided country. But that is what the have.
Chris describes the journey as akin to travelling along a Mobius strip: we always end up back we we started.
That we are still debating all this 6/12 years since the referendum speaks volumes. Brexit is far from settled.
The ‘better mood music’ concerning the Northern Ireland protocol runs into the simple fact that some involvement of the European Court of Justice is a red line (in opposite ways) for both parties. Something that might surprise some of our Irish audience: the GFA does not legally require cross-community consent for UK-EU Treaties….
All this and much more in conversation with Chris Grey @chrisgreybrexit
https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/
Really enjoyed the latest podcast.
The argumentation on why Brexit is bad for the economy is so bloody obvious, the bit I struggle with is why anybody could possibly think otherwise. I don’t know if you ever listened to Sir Ivan Roger’s nine lessons in Brexit, but the economic outcome pretty much aligns with everything he outlined. None of this is a surprise.
How did Britain end up here? Is it simply the power of social media, Cambridge Analytica and effective campaigning? Or is it deeper than that?
I recall reading about Pol Pot’s anti-intellectualism being off the wall mad. But we have a watered down version of it nowadays I think. Some people wouldn’t trust expert opinion on Brexit economics thinking they knew best. Same way many people wouldn’t trust the work of mathematical modellers during COVID, instead preferring to apply their own pseudo-science to reach a conclusion they preferred.