Nigel Farce made this possible
Not only Nigel the Nazi, but pretty much the entire British political spectrum wallowing in delusions of the grand empire that once was, continuously and systematically regarding the EU as a giant free for all, wanting to have their cake, and eat it, too. The British media kept parroting those delusions and helped to create a political climate that offered fertile soil for the seeds of euroskepticism, planted by people with ulterior motives.
It’s one more case of forgetting to learn the lessons of history and being damned to repeat it.
There were plenty of voices pointing out the UK couldn’t agree a position in its own Parliament and then simply expect the EU to comply, but they got little UK media coverage. Media owners preferred to sustain false hope and then claim victimhood, trying to create a new “stabbed in the back” myth to usher in some ultranationalists they can buy.
Tha parliament that couldn’t agree on “a position” was a ridiculous clown circus of self important buffoons deluding themselves in long gone imperial greatness while repeatedly and categorically refusing to accept the best possible outcome of the stupid stunt that Brexit was.
This and nothing else was repeatedly voting “against no deal” while refusing any deal offered.
The media playing a big part in it was obvious. Also displaying a great deal of misunderstanding what the EU and what the UK is and isn’t.
An alliance of the 27 biggest and most prosperous countries in Europe wasn’t going to make any undue concessions to a former member on its way out. Due to its unanimous decision making, the EU would do everything to protect the interests of all of even its smallest members. Therefore, Ireland could easily dictate its demands in regard to the border. Ireland says no hard land border, and at least Northern Ireland must be kept in the customs union. Period.
Unlike British politicians and media tried to sell it, the EU has never been a purely economical project where you can cherry pick whatever part you like and just buy in. It has been a political endeavour from the very start, even before it was called the EU. The whole point of it has been to prevent something like WW2 from ever happening again by close cooperation and mutual dependence between countries. Hence you can’t possibly get the economic part of the package without signing up to its political counterpart. You can’t get free trade without the freedom of movement.
Regulatory alignment is a necessary (even in purely economic terms) consequence of free trade, by the way, because otherwise someone could unfairly benefit from undercutting the rest in terms of regulations.
The media playing a big part in it was obvious. Also displaying a great deal of misunderstanding what the EU and what the UK is and isn’t.
I think the owners understood full well, but chose not to share that understanding with their readers. The media barons profit more from misleading the public.
Some definitely do, but even pro-European British media showed a blatant, outright hilarious lack of understanding of the matter.
pro-European British media
That’s only one newspaper, The New World, which only launched after the 2016 referendum (as The New European, claiming the heritage of The European which shut down in 1998).
