The UK was set to exit the EU yesterday, turning its back on a tempestuous 48-year liaison with the European project for an uncertain Brexit future that is to shape the fortunes of its people for generations to come.
Brexit, in essence, was to take place at the strike of midnight in Brussels, or 11pm GMT, when the UK was to leaves its de facto membership that continued after it formally left the bloc on Jan. 31 last year.
For five years, the frenzied gyrations of the Brexit crisis have dominated European affairs, haunted the foreign exchange markets, and tarnished the UK’s reputation as a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability.
Photo: AFP
Cast by supporters as the dawn of a newly independent “global Britain,” Brexit has weakened the bonds that bind together England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into a US$3 trillion economy.
“Brexit is not an end, but a beginning,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament just hours before it approved his EU trade deal.
Grinning, he later quipped to reporters that he had read the deal he had signed.
Johnson said that there would be no bonfire of regulation to build a “bargain basement Dickensian Britain,” and assured the EU that the UK would remain the “quintessential European civilization.”
However, the face of the Brexit campaign has been short on detail of what he wants to build with the UK’s new “independence” — or how to do it while borrowing record amounts to pay for the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the June 23, 2016, referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 52 percent, backed Brexit, while 16.1 million, or 48 percent, backed staying in the EU. Few have changed their minds since.
England and Wales voted out, but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted in.
The referendum showed a UK divided about much more than the EU, fueling soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and modern Britishness.
Leaving was once the far-fetched dream of a motley crew of “euroskeptics” on the fringes of British politics — the UK joined in 1973 as “the sick man of Europe” and two decades ago British leaders were arguing about whether to join the euro.
“The UK establishment had basically lost its mojo and we went into what was then the common market, really, for reasons of self-protection — we thought that was the best future for us, we couldn’t see another way forward,” Johnson said.
Fast forward 48 years.
“We see a global future for ourselves,” said Johnson, who against the odds clinched a Brexit divorce treaty and a trade deal, as well as the biggest Conservative Party majority since former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in a 2019 election.
For supporters, Brexit is an escape from a doomed German-dominated project that had fallen far behind the world’s leading powers of the US and China.
Opponents say Brexit is a folly that will weaken the West, torpedo what is left of the UK’s global clout, undermine its economy and ultimately leave it a less cosmopolitan set of islands.
After the UK leaves the EU, there is almost certain to be some disruption at borders. More red tape means more cost for those importing and exporting goods across the EU-UK border.
Port of Dover expects volumes to drop off early this month. The most worrisome period, it said, would be toward the end of this month when volumes pick up.
Walking away from almost half a century of membership means change to everything from pet passports and driving license rules for Britons in Europe.
Support for Scottish independence has risen, partly due to Brexit and partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening the 300-year-old political union between England and Scotland.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said an independence referendum should take place in the earlier part of the devolved Scottish parliament’s next term.
After clinching a Christmas Eve trade deal to smooth out the worst disruption, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen quoted both William Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot.
“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” she said. “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
Czech intelligence chief Michal Koudelka has spent decades uncovering Russian spy networks, sabotage attempts and disinformation campaigns against Europe. Speaking in an interview from a high-security compound on the outskirts of Prague, he is now warning allies that pushing Kyiv to accept significant concessions to end the war in Ukraine would only embolden the Kremlin. “Russia would spend perhaps the next 10 to 15 years recovering from its huge human and economic losses and preparing for the next target, which is central and eastern Europe,” said Koudelka, a major general who heads the country’s Security Information Service. “If Ukraine loses, or is forced
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
RSS