Gentle waves: Brexit moments of regret are over
Dr. Yasir Mahgoub Elhussein
After three lean years of Britain’s exit from the European Union, known as “Brexit”, there has been a growing lament within Britain after the country’s economy hit its worst state since the last century, but the nation seems to be past the moment of regret. British international and governmental institutions announced that Britain’s economy has become the worst among the countries of the Group of Twenty. These reliable institutions do not attribute the decline that hit the British economy to the Corona crisis or the Ukrainian war, but to Britain’s losses ensuing from “Brexit”, which are greater than the European Union. For months, Britain has been recording inflation above 10%, social movements and seen labour strikes unprecedented in 10 years, especially in education, public transport and even passport and border workers.
Today, it has become clear to the British that the ruling Conservative Party was short-sighted when it put all its eggs in the basket of former US President Donald Trump; Britain mortgaged Britain’s future by leaving the European Union a trade agreement between Britain and the United States at the expense of a safe, smooth and rewarding exit agreement for all parties with the European Union. Britain. However, the winds of political change in the United States and the election of Joe Biden after his victory over Trump have turned beyond the liking of the Conservative Party, which planned and orchestrated Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union after 47 years of commitment and influential membership. Indeed, President Joe Biden said he would not sign new agreements until the United States became more competitive. Brexit has cost the British economy about $124 billion a year, with effects affecting every sphere from business investment to the ability of companies to hire workers.
British Prime Minister and former Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson had vowed to leave the European Union with or without a deal and without a wise appreciation of the catastrophic ramifications. The option to leave the EU has caused great controversy and division within British society, with both Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain in the EU. Brexiteers won narrowly in 2016, arguing that leaving the EU would restore Britain’s control of its borders. Perhaps a large proportion of Brexit voters were misled by political propaganda campaigns on claims that Brexit would revive the British economy, but quite the opposite has happened. In the euphoria of a false Brexit victory, Johnson said at the time: “Britain will rediscover muscles we haven’t used in decades.”
The Conservative Party has been playing the British a “record” that the European Union is no longer in line with the dreams of the British, asserts the inevitability of separation and believes that Britain’s future will be better off with Brexit. But, there is an extended list of British prime ministers from the Conservative Party whose political careers ended due to the European complex and the controversy over Britain’s continued membership of the European Union; the list includes Lisa Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, John Major, and Margaret Thatcher.
Ricci Sunak, the current prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, is battling the rough waves of Brexit, but he appears to have learned the lesson from his predecessors, taking the first step back from his predecessors. More than two years later, Sunak struck a new deal last week between Britain and the EU on Northern Ireland – an integral part of the UK – and trade between Britain and the bloc. The deal prevents border controls between Ireland and the EU through South Ireland, the only British territory sharing a land border with the EU, as the Brexit project has previously mandated.
That suggests the Brexit deal has overwhelmed Britain and included commitments it could not meet, such as value-added duties on its goods exported to the EU. Sunak deliberately changed the policy of his predecessor, Johnson, pursuing a policy of conciliation with the Union rather than his offensive and even condescending policy. Sunak hopes the breakthrough deal will reset Northern Ireland’s trade arrangements, reset the often thorny relationship between the UK and the EU and could be the first step to repair some of the damage Brexit has done to the UK economy. This deal or agreement was designed mainly to allow Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, to remain within the huge European market so that it could trade goods freely across its land border with the Republic of Southern Ireland, a member of the European Union.
Statistics show that the trade exchange between Britain and the European Union was very high, as Britain’s exports to the Union amounted to about 274 billion pounds, which represents about 44% of Britain’s exports, while its imports from the Union are about 341 billion pounds or about 53% of British imports, and this huge exchange is based mainly on the advantages that Britain reaps its membership in the Union, and therefore the importance of the exit agreement comes because it provides an alternative to Britain after its final exit