Ten Long Years of Bitterness

Politics may never have been a wholly honest trade, but Brexit embedded dishonesty in a wholly new way

A decade after the EU Referendum, British politics remains fundamentally
poisoned by a project that produced no benefits, writes Chris Grey

The explosion of chatter generated by the 10th anniversary of what we now call the ‘Brexit referendum’ has been revealing. For its most passionate advocates, Brexit was to be no less than a national liberation and the beginning of a national renaissance. Had it been, this would be a time of national celebration. But that is not the case at all.

Instead, the commentary around the referendum’s 10th anniversary this month reveals a nation bitterly divided about the wisdom of the decision, with even the minority who still support it very often depicting it as having been ‘betrayed’.

Indeed, ever since the referendum result, it has been a grim irony that those on the winning side are just as bitter as those who lost. It is this roiling bitterness that is the most enduring legacy of the 2016 vote.