#Brexit will be remembered by historians as one of the most idiotic self-inflicted acts of harm on an entire country.

The UK already had youth mobility schemes with the EU (Erasmus above all) by simply being an EU member. That’s no longer the case, but the UK has realized that it actually needs some skilled youngsters willing to study there (being an English-native country has its advantages) and probably remain and contribute to the economy afterwards.

So the UK is now in talks to create a new UK-EU specific youth mobility program and reinvent yet another wheel.

Just like it reinvented the wheel of trade with the EU - by basically having to abide to all of the EU trade rules if it wants to trade with us.

Just like it reinvented the wheel of customs checks.

Just like it reinvented the wheel of shared responsibilities over cross border migrants and asylum seekers.

You see the pattern?

Basically the past 10 years have been spent rebuilding the regulatory infrastructure that they tossed out of the way in a day by voting for Brexit.

With the difference that this time they’re not even EU members anymore. So they have to sit at the negotiating table and accept rules voted by other EU members, without even having a say about those rules.

In the meantime, all the hollow promises made by the Brexit political pipers have melted like snow in the sun.

More money for the NHS? The NHS is actually falling apart, it’s in a much worse shape than it was a decade ago, and it struggles to provide basic care without the influx of EU-born doctors and nurses.

Leave the EU but stay in the single market? We’ve seen how well that worked didn’t we? In a way, the UK can stay in the single market - if it abides to all the trade rules made by other EU members, without having a vote on them. Which is what’s been happening already.

Take back control of their borders? Sure, except that migration didn’t slow at all after leaving the EU, and it actually accelerated (https://www.statista.com/statistics/283287/net-migration-figures-of-the-united-kingdom-y-on-y/), now that they have to look after their borders themselves, outside of the EU’s programs.

More money for the Brits? Sure, but the data shows that the GDP per capita of the UK in 2023 was at the same level as it was in 2008 (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=GB).

So who benefited from this mess?

The scumbag who benefited from this has a name and a surname: Nigel Farage.

His lies propelled Brexit. His misused eloquence and charisma drove millions to really believe that the UK would have been better off outside of the EU. And, after the Brexit referendum, he immediately took a break from politics for some years, saying that his political objective had been achieved.

He’s a spineless coward who left a ship that he sank himself. He didn’t roll up his sleeves to get a good Brexit deal with the EU. He didn’t fight to make sure that his pre-referendum promises weren’t shattered. He didn’t move a single inch for the rural communities that he claimed to care about.

And then, out of nowhere, he popped back into politics a few years later, acknowledging that Brexit didn’t go as planned, and he blamed it on the politicians who actually tried to solve the problem in these years - well, then where have you been in these years, while other politicians were actually doing their work, putting their faces and risking their careers in hard negotiations, you filthy manure-covered scum of the earth?

And you know what’s the worst part?

That folks actually believe him.

Instead of being hanged, drawn and quartered, and his head affixed on a pole outside the tower of London as a warning to any future populist liars, Farage’s party is now again a serious contender as thr most popular party in the UK.

Yet another proof that angry conservative rednecks have short memory, are easy to fool, and don’t actually even mind crooks lying to them or stealing from them - as long as those crooks provide them a narrative that resonates with them and a couple of scapegoats that they can vomit all of their frustration on.

https://archive.is/bWZiq