Post-Brexit United Kingdom has become a devourer of political leaderships. That referendum, held ten years ago, condemned the country's will to leave the European Union and has ended up becoming a point of no return. It was the beginning of a fracture that crossed the English Channel, but also the British society. Brexit marks the point where United Kingdom politics became unmanageable. Six prime ministers in a decade. The latest victim is the Labour politician Keir Starmer, who had to resign just two years after achieving the third most important majority for his party, after Tony Blair's victories. Starmer has fallen victim to his colleagues and a majority that was never his. That overwhelming result in July 2024 was, above all, a forceful rejection of the conservative disarray and not a closing of ranks around a uncharismatic politician who promised tranquility and technocratic competence.

Next Tuesday will mark ten years since Brexit. That earthquake that shook the European Union to its core has had consequences for everyone, but especially for the British.

Anand Menon (1965) is Professor of International Relations and European Politics at King's College London. Before the Brexit referendum, in 2015, he launched the think tankUK in a Changing Europe. Since then, he himself as director and others of his collaborators have produced thousands of pages on the impact of the decision that the British made on June 23, 2016, next Tuesday will be a decade. His approach is simple: he doesn't say what to think, he just presents the effects of Brexit.

Ten years ago, the United Kingdom was immersed in the campaign for the Brexit referendum. Supporters of leaving the European Union promised that, by regaining control of borders and trade policy, the UK would soon become an economic power of such magnitude that no one would remember the time it belonged to the Union. There would be fewer immigrants, less taxes would be paid, and, thanks to new trade agreements, there would be so much prosperity that everyone would live better. With this promise, on June 23, 2016, the Brexiters won at the polls by a narrow margin of votes: 51.9% versus 48.1%.

In the mid-afternoon of June 24, 2016, Rhys Morgan and Polly Corrigan, neighbors of this correspondent, knocked on the door of the house. They came loaded with tea and biscuits as a token of sympathy for what had happened the day before. On June 23, next Tuesday, it will be a decade since more than 17 million Britons voted to break a forty-one-year relationship with the European Union (EU). All this by a narrow margin: 51.9% versus 48.1%. The bonfires of Saint John's Eve burned much more in Westminster than in Catalonia.

Every new geopolitical threat has served to bring the United Kingdom and the European Union a little closer. For a year now, London and Brussels have been in a process of accelerated and silent reconnection. The Russian invasion of Ukraine opened the doors to defense cooperation, and the Trump disruption, now magnified by the horizon of economic and energy crisis generated by the war in Iran, has increased the need for economic and commercial understanding.

Labour wants to turn back the clock ten years, but doesn't know how to do it without being accused of betraying the mandate the British people gave with the Brexit referendum in June 2016The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, outlined on Wednesday what is, so far, the most drastic change of course announcement. since Keir Starmer came to power In July 2024.

New confirmation of Brexit failureAnd the punishment it has meant for the younger generations affected by the divorce, who have had to accept it without having been able to make their voices heard in the 2016 referendum. The European Union and the United Kingdom announced this Wednesday in a joint statement that London is rejoining the Erasmus student exchange program. May summit", between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the European Commission.

"Many of the migrants crossing the English Channel are fleeing countries at war. If we don't address the root causes, the dangerous routes will continue." With these words, Christa Rottensteiner, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission in the United Kingdom, summarized last week what most specialists also maintain: deterrent migration policies, such as those currently being promoted by London and Paris, will be of little use if the root causes of unregulated migration are not addressed. This is the same conclusion reached by Matilde Rosina, a migration researcher at Brunel University London, who tells ARA: "Deterrent policies are often ineffective. Furthermore, they do not address the root causes of migration, such as poverty, conflict, and corruption."

The European Union and the United Kingdom reached new agreements today in London that mark a turning the page on Brexit. "A new beginning for old friends," in the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Highlights include an extension to twelve years of fishing access for the European fleet in British waters, although there will be no increase in the amount of fish that EU vessels will be able to catch. In return, some routine checks on animal and plant products will be completely eliminated, allowing goods to move freely again, including between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Other measures will allow British tourists to use automatic passport gates (e-cats) in Europe. The United Kingdom and the EU have also agreed to cooperate on a youth experience program, which will allow young people to work and travel freely within Europe again for a limited period. Finally, a new security and defense partnership will be launched.

Brexit is not just a political decision that causes chaos at petrol stations, a shortage of butchers or lorry drivers or all kinds of missing items in supermarkets. Brexit is a state of mind that clouds understanding and unleashes the absurd. And there is more: not only does it discriminate between nationals and non-nationals even if they have been living in the UK for decades, but the discrimination reaches irrational and unjustifiable limits.