Growing buyer’s remorse in Britain over Brexit
Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London
Is the UK having Brexit buyer’s remorse? Or is the departure from the European Union delivering. With a country in its longest recession on record, Britons are starting to examine the real consequences of leaving the EU. Saeed Pourreza reports:
It was a referendum that would change Britain’s future forever. Fifty-two percent of those who turned out to vote in 2016 chose to leave the EU- setting to motion years of negotiations and changes to laws and legislation. The man championing the cause: Nigel Farage.
A nation that voted in Brexiteer in chief, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to power who promised an oven ready post-Brexit deal with the EU and prosperity for Britons. Six years on and five prime ministers later, the country is facing an economic downturn expected to last until 2024 and a de facto general strike by public sector workers over pay and conditions.
Small and large businesses up and down the country are all feeling the impact of Brexit in different ways, from added paperwork at borders to labor shortages countrywide. In October, a Confederation of British Industry report stated that three quarters of UK companies have been hit by labor shortages in the past year.
Since new Brexit rules took effect at the start of 2021, EU nationals no longer have the freedom to work in the UK. Instead a new points based immigration system has been implemented to attract skilled workers. Marlies Haselton has lived here for nearly 40 years.
The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has also impacted the country’s trade: After the pandemic, trade in almost all G7 nations has been recovering. The one exception is the UK.
And predictions for next year’s GDP growth show a similar story. According to the OECD predictions, the British economy is not likely to grow in 2023. It’s estimated to perform worse than advanced economies like China, Canada, and Japan. Even developing nations such as Indonesia are ahead of the UK. And one country below Britain is Russia which is currently under heavy economic sanctions.
As Britain faces a winter of discontent on a par with 1978, it’s become increasingly more evident that it’s Britain that risks becoming the lame duck of the G7 due to Brexit and Brexit alone.
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