Five years of Brexit

Today is the fifth anniversary of Britain's vote to leave the EU. Despite the referendum being advisory and not legally binding, and despite the vote being a close run race with 51% voting Leave and 49% Remain, Britain went ahead with "the will of the people".

Five years later, the general consensus is that Brexit has been a disaster. It's been disastrous for businesses and the economy, it's divided families as well as the nation, it's provided the corrupt Tories with a significant and dangerously undemocratic majority in Parliament, it's diminished Britain's standing on the world stage even though some erroneously claim it's allowed Britain to compete "globally" and become "world-beating" while the sad reality is that Britain is now seen as a third rate power with delusions of grandeur.  Sadly, Brexit can't be reversed, but maybe one day in the not too distant future, people will see sense and once again vote to join the EU.

Interestingly, people are demanding "show me one single Brexit benefit". In response there's a deafening silence, apart from the odd comedian muttering "blue passports and happy fish". But, surprise surprise, there are two remarkable positives. The first is an increase in the average IQ of the EU population now that Britain's left (good joke, wot) and the second is that those few Brit millionaires with huge amounts of dosh hidden away in tax-free havens such as the Cayman Islands can now rest easy having escaped the eagle eyes and inquisitive noses of the EU's tax investigators. Had Britain remained in the EU, their tax-free dosh would have become taxable. So, for them, that's a definite benefit of Brexit.