Brexiting out into irrelevance

Your publication on Friday January 1, 2021 will be ‘the first day of the rest of our lives’. Britain joined the European ideal as the sick man of Europe; it left as its laughing stock. The Government’s delusion of ‘friends in Europe’ after the venom of the last 5 years is embarrassing. There will be life after Brexit, but what will it look like? We have ‘a deal’ so the very worst situation has been avoided – a bad deal was always better than no deal. In 2014 Scotland decided to continue close partnership with both England and Europe; it now no longer has that option The people of Scotland must have the chance to decide to stay in the UK or become a sovereign state within the EU. We now have an economic border in the North Sea; the people of Northern Ireland should ask, ‘Britain, or the Republic?’ On 24th June 2016 Mr Johnson was reported to say that Britain could now reach out to the rest of the world, which would have been a big shock to little Englanders who thought that Brexit was about ‘standing on our own two feet’ whatever that meant. Maybe by 2026 HMG will have reproduced all the trade deals which we already enjoyed within the EU. On that same date I also forecast that within 10 years, the UK would be below 50th in the global prosperity league table. The CIA’s World Factbook shows that we are well on the way. Without the British brake we can expect that for the 27 sovereign EU nations and the 5 current applicants ‘ever closer union’ can be realised and the organisation even more influential in World affairs. It won’t happen under this government, but the inevitable public enquiry into the structure and conduct of the 2016 referendum will condemn the depths to which our democratic processes have fallen. Taken with this government’s contempt for the rule of law, on Friday we took the final step into international irrelevance. A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton: In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers. With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers. Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis. Stay safe, and best wishes.