5 years on, the UK is a fractured and fragile country, struggling to hold on to democracy and failing to deal with rising inequality and the spread of far-right politics. The ills of Brexit are part of a global shift towards the hard right, to which EU member states are also susceptible.
But half a decade in, the nebulous promise of control for the people of the UK has simply not materialised.
Those who voted for Brexit did so for mixed reasons; but part of it was a clear demand for systemic change after decades of Tory and Labour rule that has gutted towns, created systemic unemployment, increased costs of living, decimated our public services, and allowed companies to reap ever higher profits. Farage and the Tory right scapegoated migrants and the EU for these failings.
Yet five years on, leaving the EU has only exacerbated these problems and, few Brexit voters would find enough to defend in the failed Brexit project. Meanwhile, Starmer’s Labour seeks to ‘make Brexit work’ while refusing to enact the wide-reaching systemic change needed; with an obsessive focus on ‘fiscal rules’ and an economic policy close to that of the austerity era, he continues to sow discontent while capitulating to the lobbying demands of powerful multinational corporations.
The challenges ahead are still grave – but we have cut ourselves off from a transnational bloc where they can be recognised, shared and tackled. The climate crisis looms large over the next decades and Brexit has served as a distraction and an excuse for repeated governments to stall and delay. Tackling corporate power requires strength in numbers and cross-border collaboration with the EU and global south countries are urgently needed.
Meanwhile, as technocratic oligarchs threaten to manipulate and reshape our very public space and discourse to suit their political agendas, control is ever more elusive.
Instead of fighting over old battles, we must urgently focus our efforts to fight the toxic political legacy of Brexit and continue the campaign to reverse it.
We have to double our efforts to end the dehumanisation of migrants and to fight Islamophobia. We have to resist corporate takeover of our democracy and find new ways of coming together and organising effective resistance. We have to build and expand our networks across the continent and support each other in our collective struggles. We can’t wait for politicians to build it, we have to make another Europe possible!
31st January 2025