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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Good Governance |
|---|---|
| located: | United Kingdom |
| editor: | Gurmeet Singh |
The pandemic has rendered all other news secondary. However, this doesn’t make other news unimportant or insignificant. Brexit, for example, is a fundamental reordering of an entire continent’s political and economic arrangements, and will affect citizens for generations. Thanks to the Coronavirus crisis however, it seems to have disappeared from public notice altogether.
Nevertheless, it is causing a drastic shift in British society. ”Brexit has sparked an exodus of economically productive people from the UK to European Union nations on a scale that would normally be expected only as a result of a major economic or political crisis, according to a detailed new study,” reports The Guardian.
The report’s authors summarise that “OECD figures and national government statistics have shown that the number has risen continuously since 2010 with an exaggerated spike since the Brexit referendum in 2016. The Oxford in Berlin/WZB British migration study interviewed U.K. citizens that have left the U.K. for Germany over the last 10 years, examining the reasons for their migration. The study data reveals the great sacrifices and risks many British citizens are taking in order to find some form of certainty in their lives after the Brexit vote. The results clearly show that for those Brits leaving the U.K. after 2016, Brexit was the main motivation.”
The report reveals many ironies involved in the Brexit project. It was supposed to create a more stable Britain but has introduced uncertainty into many people’s lives. It was supposed to secure Britain as an independent country, but its citizens are fleeing using existing mechanisms of free movement. It was supposed to enhance Britain’s cultural and economic power but is creating a brain drain. It was supposed to inspire a feeling of national strength and unity but has encouraged people to embrace cosmopolitanism.
Forbes comments: “Within two years of the June 2015 referendum, over 20,000 left for a new life in Spain, over 10,000 to France. 11,300 were lured to Germany, 5,660 to Ireland, and 5,510 to the Netherlands…Among Brits biggest Brexit fears was the loss of freedom to move as they please within the EU for life or work. 74% said they would be prepared to trade in British citizenship if necessary to maintain that freedom.”
What’s more, the country is facing further complications due to the crisis. The Independent writes: “The government has written to medicine suppliers urging them to stockpile drugs for a possible no-deal in EU trade talks at the end of the year – after firms warned that this may not be possible because of the pandemic.”
The country has never appeared so isolated (or should that be self-isolated) since the second world war. The national project it has embarked on is failing to inspire the support of some of its most economically productive people, and may indeed be increasing support for the international EU project. And in doing so, it may be doing irreparable harm to itself under our very noses.
Image by 8926
