Member-only story
The ‘Anything but this’ trap
Whether leaving the EU was a good or a bad decision always was — and remains — a matter of preference. But the decision-making process to get there was unsound
Just over five years ago, at 11pm on 31 January 2020 (midnight in Brussels), the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, three and a half years after the Brexit referendum had determined, with a small but decisive margin, that this should be done. It was one of the most divisive events in the country’s history, with the country near-evenly split in ‘Leavers’ and ‘Remainers’. Leavers could not comprehend how their opponents favoured staying in a domineering, undemocratic body run by unelected bureaucrats preventing the UK from acting in her own interest. Remainers could not understand how the other side wanted to abandon a transnational body that, since the end of WWII, had ensured growth and prosperity through frictionless trade and cooperation for now over 500 million people. It was a momentous decision, with many levels of complexity. Yet for the vast majority of the electorate, it had been a simple, clear-cut choice. Isn’t that odd?
Overwhelmed by emotion
It was, of course, an emotional matter right from the very start. Intriguingly, the attitude of both…
