Two years of leaving the EU
How are the British doing after Brexit?
01/30/2022, 6:00 p.m
Lack of staff, empty shelves and fear for the future: Two years after Brexit, many Britons consider leaving the EU to be a fatal mistake. In a survey, more than six out of ten rated the exit from the EU as negative or worse than expected. Many Brexiteers are also among the disappointed.
January 31, 2020 was not a good day for the blue flag with the yellow stars. In Parliament Square, London, some bitter British opponents of the European Union trampled on her while others mourned at home. In the EU Parliament they sang “Auld Lang Syne” and let the British go. It’s been two years since Great Britain left the EU – its people more divided than ever before. How do the British, whose prime minister is fighting for his political survival, think about Brexit 24 months and one trade pact later? A stroll through the British capital.
“I wish we were still in the EU,” says Carol Christofi from the Surrey Hills, who is strolling across the square at Covent Garden with her husband. She voted against Brexit and worries about her daughters (17 and 21), who would like to pursue an international career. Living and working where you want is only possible for Brits with the appropriate visa – and that’s expensive and time-consuming. The same goes for EU citizens, many of whom used to come to the UK to work. Today, Christofi notices that there is a search for staff everywhere, whether in gastronomy or retail, signs are hanging everywhere.
“There is a huge shortage”
This also concerns Amanda Hitchcock, who quickly treats herself to a cigarette on the street in the City of London. The Brit concludes contracts with cleaning and security companies for a larger commercial building – or at least tries to. “I can’t find any cleaners or security staff with the best will in the world. There’s a huge shortage,” she says. Hitchcock says that her government did not properly implement the exit from the EU. “They really got us into trouble with that.” She is one of those who stayed at home for the 2016 referendum. “I’m pretty impartial,” she says. Hitchcock is the exception rather than the rule.
If you ask around the Brits, most have a clear opinion – although in some cases this has changed drastically. “Voting for Brexit was the stupidest decision I’ve ever made. I deeply regret it,” admits Sam, who works in London in the cultural sector and does not want to make his full name public. Friends and colleagues he has only met in recent years do not know that he voted to leave in 2016.
Sam writes via email that he has not listened to “liars” like Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage and therefore cannot say he was lied to. Rather, he followed criticism of the EU’s agricultural policy or the austerity policy towards Greece and thought: “With everything I know, do I want to remain a part of it? The young radical in me thought I had to say no and of something better to dream.” Today the dreams are over. “I didn’t think about who would be responsible for leaving the EU, how awkward and clownish they would be, how ignorant and uninterested in how the EU actually works.”
Many “Leave” voters regret their decision
In a survey conducted a few weeks ago by the opinion research institute Opinium, more than six out of ten Britons rated Brexit as negative or worse than expected. According to the Observer, which commissioned the survey, as many as 42 percent of those who voted to leave the Brexit referendum have a negative opinion. “We are now seeing that a significant minority of Leave voters are saying things are going badly, or at least worse than expected,” Opinium pollster Adam Drummond said. Instead of two hardened fronts of supporters and opponents of Brexit, even the group of “Leave” voters is now divided.
The Brexit transition phase has also been over for a good year, and since then people in Great Britain have been slowly beginning to feel what Brexit really means so far – fewer staff, less choice of European products and interrupted supply chains. Even Londoner John Jones, who sees great opportunities in Brexit through trade agreements, has to admit that these have not yet come to fruition. The hoped-for trade deal with the USA is a long way off, the contracts concluded so far make little difference to the economy. Jones’ statement: “Brexit has been blocked by Covid.”
“Free from the constraints of Europe”
Nigel Hanbury, who works for an insurance company in the London financial center, is already satisfied. “I think things are going really well,” says the 64-year-old. “Our business is thriving, but more importantly, we are free from the constraints of Europe.” He was really happy to be “out”. “But we still have a lot of work to do,” he admits. The government must remove regulations that date back to the EU as soon as possible. The Brit is not afraid that the world-renowned London financial sector could be left behind by Amsterdam or Frankfurt. “We’ve never done much profitable business with Europe anyway.”
While London is coming to terms with the country’s fate in one way or another, work is already underway in the North to return to the Union. “Brexit has damaged Scotland’s economy and our open relationship with Europe,” writes pro-independence Scotland activist Michael Gray. “The UK government may get away with blaming it on Covid-19 for a while, but eventually the reality will emerge that Brexit will make us poorer and more isolated.”
Scotland’s return to the European Union is considered unlikely as there are hurdles to a referendum and the Scots are quite divided. But if Gray and Scotland’s Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon have their way, their country should vote next year on whether to decouple from the UK. Next stop: EU.