Boris Johnson’s main claim to fame, as opposed to infamy, is (at least in the eyes of half the UK electorate), that he “got Brexit done”.
A year after Britain’s messy divorce from the EU, pundits and economists have been totting up the costs and benefits. Remainers and even government economists say we’ve paid through the nose. The Office for Budget Responsibility says leaving the EU will reduce our long-term GDP by around 4 per cent, compared to a fall of around 1.5 per cent caused by the pandemic.
Brexiters say it’s too early to gauge the political benefits or even financial outcome.
What about the EU perspective? The views of our leading frenemy, and nearest neighbour France, might be deemed a little jaundiced given the current, dire state of relations between the government of Johnson, the glib populist, and that of Emmanuel Macron, the show-boating Sun King, who has an eye on upcoming presidential elections.
For a more sober assessment of Brexit a year on, i talked to the Italian ambassador to the UK, another of the EU’s big three economies, with whom Britain…
