From what I read (right here on the internet) it’s not just Brexit that’s going to sideline the UK into global insignificance. The “special relationship” with the US has long been an advantage, the UK being seen in some senses as a bridge nation between Europe and the US, bringing the world together.

It’s been a geological era since Empire (although I can remember when schoolroom maps were mostly Commonwealth pink, jumpers for goalposts) and the UK has been on a steady slide in terms of world influence for some time. But the recent turkey-voting-for-Christmas Brexit vote (let’s talk about chickens coming home to roost after the stable door’s been bolted, too) might, just, have avoided catastrophe had the “special relationship” remained in place. But the US iteration of Brexit, a seemingly more alarming display of national stupidity than the Brexit vote but at least salvageable in three years – if we all live that long – has left the UK isolated and irrelevant. There are those who say who cares about global importance? but that status is a reflection of how well the country is doing. The UK used to be a country that “punched above its weight” – … Continue reading Brexit, Trump and the death of the UK