In other news, water is wet.Originally Posted by Former Labour leader
The UK will always be in some form of negotiation - or negotiations - with the EU for as long as either exist. Brexit doesn’t really end, until either or both does. This is just what neighbouring sovereign states that have interdependent economies outside of the EU do (Switzerland, Norway, etc). States within the EU do just the same. This is politics, no?
Sovereignty was deemed the guiding principle for the current UK government and it negotiated with the EU with that red line primarily in mind (with some flexibility of course, arrangements for Northern Ireland for example). The economy was secondary in comparison - to an extent, this is Brexit in a nutshell.
There will be economic damage to the UK in the short and medium term whether there was a pandemic or not, I think that is a fairly unanimous position amongst economists, but most who have advocated for the UK leaving the EU tended to downplay the significance of that damage and deemed it a price worth paying. Although there are economic cases that can be made for Brexit, from my experience I don’t think they made up the main thrust or groundswell of support for the campaign to leave that ultimately saw the UK vote to do so.
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