The media has been replete this summer with reports of British holidaymakers returning from EU countries proclaiming – and complaining – that our neighbours enjoy a better way of life than is now the case in Brexit Britain.
In years gone by a popular English phrase was “mustn’t grumble”. These days it has been superseded by “nothing works” and “things are falling apart”.
I hasten to add that I do not blame Brexit for all our ills. The tragedy is that this act of crass self-harm has superimposed a drastic cut in living standards and cultural potential on the nation: that is to say, on a population that was already subject to the cumulative damage of the excesses of Thatcherism (misconceived privatisation, for instance) and the consequences of needless austerity. These latter have not been good news for the achievement of that endless mantra favoured by both Tories and Labour: higher productivity.
I was struck, on holiday in Portugal, by a feeling of sadness and sympathy towards the British on the part of people one met. Indeed, Adrian Bridge, proprietor of the Yeatman Hotel in Porto, told me how awkward it had been after the referendum for the British living in Portugal talking to their Portuguese friends, who felt shocked and hurt by the referendum decision.
There was their oldest ally – going back to the 1386 Treaty of Windsor, and the marriage of John of Gaunt’s daughter Philippa of Lancaster to King John I of Portugal the following year – departing from the EU we had encouraged Portugal to join.
Portugal’s membership of the EU has been a resounding success, helping it no end to recover fast and impressively from the Salazar dictatorship of 1932-1968.
Mention of John of Gaunt reminds me of the extraordinary admission of an old friend who, when asked why on earth he had shocked his family and friends by voting for Brexit, replied that he was emotionally influenced by the fictional John of Gaunt’s speech in Shakespeare’s Richard II: “This scepter’d isle … this other Eden … This precious stone set in the silver sea.”
Well, he should have continued towards the end of that soliloquy: “That England, that was wont to conquer others,/Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.”
One of the odd things about Brexiters like Boris Johnson is that they seem to want to live in and recapture the past. They fantasise about a return to the world of 1066 And All That, joint author one RJ Yeatman, who was born in Porto. But even that great satirical work ends with the verdict that England, after the first world war, was no longer “top dog”.
Now, historians will no doubt recall that, in explaining the benefits of international trade and “comparative advantage”, the economist David Ricardo, in 1821, had a favourite example: the way Portugal was good at the wine trade and England – Lancashire – at the manufacture and export of clothing.
Things have moved on since then, but British manufacturing was in a bad enough way without the added blow to trade of Brexit. However, your reporter on the spot can confirm that the virtues of Portuguese wine are nowhere near desuetude.
Yet it is indeed becoming embarrassingly obvious that Brexit Britain has damaged its export performance and aggravated its inflation problem with restrictions on imports, notably food. The government is continually delaying and denying the impact of Brexit because even its rampant Brexiters can see the damage they are inflicting.
I have many times criticised the disgraceful lies of the politicians who misled too many people into voting for Brexit. But if there ever is a public inquiry or a royal commission to look into this disastrous fiasco, there should also be some serious questioning of the wealthy entrepreneurs who financed Brexit.
It has been pointed out to me that the majority of the hedge fund and other tycoons did not have any skin in the game with regard to the trade with Europe that is being so badly hampered. Their interests lay with getting rid of rules and regulations, or, as the disillusioned Tory financierGuy Hands admitted: “What Brexit was largely about was people at the top being able to employ the rest of the country for a lot less and pay a lot less tax.”
As one experienced analyst puts it, not a single FTSE 100 company boss actually backed Brexit during the referendum – clearly they could see the damage it would do to their businesses.”
The movement to rejoin the EU is growing, and not before time. It is sad, indeed culpably negligent of the Labour leadership, that they do not hammer home the costs being inflicted by Brexit. They could yet regret this.
• This article was amended on 4 September 2023 because an earlier version incorrectly described Guy Hands as a Brexiter. In fact he is a Remainer.
