You have. Because of the Good Friday Agreement.
Had London in 1921 never created a border in Ireland, then Brexit in 2017 could have been more than an economically-right wing fantasy of the Tory party.
Now your own history is affecting your view, just as the brexiteers pining for the empire is affecting theirs.
Brexit cannot work because basically it amounts to leaving one huge economic trading deal and seeking another, which can only be inferior. All trade deals ever created involve trading off one gain for a disadvantage, but the aim is that everyone will be better off. There is no evidence I have seen that this does not apply to our EU membership, and almost all the economists seem to agree. Those that disagree seem to put a lot of emphasis on other, more important, things wrong with the UK economy. It is arguable that the EU has in effect been a life support machine for the Uk, keeping the economy going despite its other failings. But the synergy of membership means the Uk economy has also adapted to having this trade deal, and to take advantage of it. So the pain will be much worse than had we never joined. Leaving means starting again from scratch, and our most important trading partner is and will remain the EU.
Voters did not vote for any deal which will cost them money. Thats the truth. The government cannot deliver any form of Brexit which will not cost them money, and it already has.
So I disagree, Brexit could never be more than a fantasy under any circumstances. It isnt really fair to say this is a conservative fantasy, because the majority do not believe in it and dont think it can work. But they have a voter base which has been persuaded to want it. They allowed this to happen because they do have a faction which firmly believes in leaving the EU, and in order to prevent party splits they adopted a neutral position. When UKIP came along, they declined to oppose leaving the EU directly. It was a big mistake, because UKIP won by default. Tories refused to admit that the UK needs the EU, and all this talk of return to empire is utter fantasy. But its the sort of fantasy which appeals to tory voters. Labour has pretty much stayed out of it and left the tories to stew in their own disaster.
Right now the government has adopted a head in sand approach, seeking to delay. The action of the EU and Irish government has forced them to address the realities of Brexit. Not because the westminster government cares one bit about Ireland, but simply because unless they made a meaningfull statement right now, negotiations would cease right now. And that would have been disastrous for both the leave and remain faction of the conservatives. Both still see a way to win in the future, remain by following the script of the deal, leave by stalling for time until we have formally left and then repudiating the deal.
The effect of the DUP has been to impose a requirement for whatever deal to apply to all the Uk, so the government could not get away with making a deal just for ireland as an exception to the whole. I imagine the south would have been perfectly happy with a new sea border between England and N. Ireland, and this was the top priority to avoid for the DUP. But i think they will end up like the liberals after their coalition with the conservatives, if they are not very careful. They are a leave supporting party which has just pushed through a remain policy. All smacks of the libs opposing university tuition fees, and then helping the tories deliver them.
That we got to this point is an endictment of the British education system and it’s deficienceis in educating British People as to why it’s second city left the UK 97 years ago. (That second city was Dublin).
Not sure how you mean this. if you mean the Uk still dreams of being an empire and bossing the world about, then yes, it has not learnt the lesson it cannot do this. The politicians who joined the EU understood that the Uk could not longer hold an empire by force of arms, and needed to gain advantage by other means. Thats why they worked for and obtained a veto over developments of the UK's major trading partner, the EU. Fools now have started the process of simply giving this away.
Brexit is entirely realisti. It’s just ahead of its time. The DUP needs to die off first. Who knows how long that would take? In the meantime. Brexiters should arm themselves with a copy of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements. Also with Arlene Foster’s local newspaper.
I'm not really understanding your point, which is a shame because its good to hear a bit about what the irish really think.
What the EU wants out of all this is to end the Uk veto on its future development. Most likely it will change in ways against the interests of the UK (certainly those of Brexit supporters), and we will comply with whatever it wants, whether members or not, because it is our most important trading partner. This is INEVITABLE. The agreement says the government believes this to be the case. Already they have no choice but to accept EU terms. But still they push ahead with Brexit against what they know to be the national interest.
