Boris Johnson’s Brexit win was a Pyrrhic victory

Boris Johnson’s Brexit win was a Pyrrhic victory

To the victor, the spoils.Boris Johnson won the referendum on UK membership of the EU just over five years ago, went on to win the leadership of the Conservative party in July 2019, reached a deal with the EU in Octoberand won a decisive victory under the UK's first-past-the post system in thegeneral election of December. He has re-made his country. But has he remade it for the better or for the worse? Has he increased opportunities for British people, or diminished them? Has he made the UK more influential and prosperous, or less so? My answer to all these questions is: "the latter". But I admit it is still early days in this story.

A point that emerged quickly (and to no informed person's surprise) is that the Brexiters had misunderstood the EU. Anand Menon of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative at King's College notesthat Dominic Raab (now foreign secretary) said in April 2016that "we can have proper control of our borders but we don't need to be bound by all this stifling regulation"‰."‰."‰."‰and it's certainly not in the Europeans' interests to erect trade barriers". The EU disagreed. Many barriers do now exist: they will stay.

The reason for