Ten years ago Nigel Farage was in political heaven. Since entering the European Parliament in 1999 at the head of a small anti-European party he had only one demand. That Britain organize a referendum on leaving the European Union. It was held on June 23, 2016.
His wish was granted by the coalition government headed by the Conservative prime minister David Cameron and his Liberal Deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. Both men believed the British people would never turn their backs on Europe.
It was the biggest mistake by a British prime minister since Conservative prime minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938 signed the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, believing the promise of the German fuhrer that Berlin had no more interest in other nations in Europe once London and Paris gave him a region of Czechoslovakia.
Ten years after Brexit the verdict is in on Britain’s rupture with Europe. Most economists agree that Britain’s economy will shrink by 8%. Other than the financial services offered by the City of London, which for 200 years has been the European capital of banking and insurance, raising billions for international firms, hiding money in fiscal paradises, or providing luxury homes for Russian and Arab oligarchs, the rest of the British economy outside of London has suffered.
