Who, we ask, could have seen this coming? Apart from the leading economists, fiscal policy experts, international trade analysts, and the businesses owners battered by the reality of Brexit, that only leaves ‘people with common sense’. Apart from that, it’s a real blindside. Just ask The Telegraph.
Brexit-backing Telegraph turns its back on ‘economic disaster’
After banging the drum for Brexit over the last decade, something appears to have dawned upon the publication. This ‘great act of liberation’ was nothing more than a harmful exercise in self-sabotage. Ten years on from the referendum result, even the staunch backers are getting cold feet.
An opinion piece written by Jeremy Warner – who serves as the Assistant Editor at The Telegraph – lamented the ‘near-disastrous’ consequences of formally withdrawing from the trading bloc in 2020. Promises of economic prosperity and managed immigration have fallen exceptionally flat.
It has left a bitter, bitter taste for Warner and his colleagues…
“From an economic perspective at least, Brexit has so far proved close to disastrous. If leaving the EU was supposed to be a moment of national economic renewal, it has comprehensively failed to deliver as it was supposed to.” | Jeremy Warner
Brexit cheerleaders spooked by new research
The piece in The Telegraph was inspired by a nine-year study conducted by the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER). Their data assessed the overall economic impact of Brexit, from the day of the referendum and into this calendar year. The figures were gruesome.
As per the NBR, the UK’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) had fallen by as much as 8% from where it should be since 2016, with the impact ‘accumulating gradually’ as the years have gone by. Investment into the country is also estimated to have dropped sharply, by roughly 12-18%.
Will the UK rejoin the EU?
Both employment and productivity have also been severely hampered, with each data set estimated to have been reduced by 3-4% from previous projections within the last decade or so – which might go a long way towards explaining the general malaise Britain is experiencing.
The comprehensive analysis has the potential to serve as the final nail in Brexit’s coffin. And while most of Westminster continues to ignore the elephant in the room, this switch in tone from The Telegraph is indicative of just how disappointing this all turned out to be.
Perhaps the ‘sunlit uplands’ were in the EU all this time…