Since 11pm (UK time) on 31st January 2020, the United Kingdom is no longer a member of the European Union and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is keen to say that Brexit is now done. To prove this, he has closed down the Department for Exiting the European Union (the Brexit Department) and does not allow the term Brexit to be used any more - it has happened and is now history. For the duration of the transition period (currently ending on the 31st December 2020), we are still a member of the EU Single Market and Customs Union, bound by EU regulations and laws, while we negotiate the detailed terms of our exit; but after that we will truly be "out" of the European Union. So why are people on both sides of the argument still acting so unreasonably?
To some degree, I can understand why the Remainers are unhappy. I myself think the UK was wrong to leave the EU, but have long felt that we needed to follow the result of the EU Referendum. I disagreed with the rush to leave without a deal, which was thankfully prevented by the UK Parliament after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019; but I did think that we had to leave, only in a controlled manner with a reasonable agreement in place. Now we have given up our EU membership (I won't say left the EU yet), Remainers need to accept it and make the best of the position we have been forced into. For instance, I find it very petty for people to say they will refuse to accept the Brexit 50p coins - I don't like them, and think it was a waste of money to have them, but they are just 50p coins, and perfectly legal tender.
What I can't understand is why the Leavers are still so unhappy and unreasonable. Haven't they now got what they wanted, and voted for? I was particularly embarrassed by the behaviour of our Brexit Party MEPs, and found Nigel Farage's final speech at the European Parliament to be especially ungracious, even for him. It seems to me that the EU representatives have handled Brexit far better than those from the UK, and are even now continuing to talk positively about the way forward, unlike those in the UK who just want to sound tough. The Prime Minister's statement yesterday is no doubt intended to strengthen his negotiating position for the forthcoming talks on trade agreements, etc. but it just backs us into a corner we really don't want to be in. We could still have no deal at the end of the transition period and leave with all of the complications that would cause - it is possible that the Government is actually working to that end, though we will find out more about this as the negotiations progress.
I have noticed that at each step we seem to get a little further away from the position that was sold to us by the Leave campaigners in the run up to the EU Referendum. I don't know if this has been a long term plan - if it has it has been very well architected and co-ordinated, so I find it hard to believe that any of them could have managed this. More amazingly, many of the Leave supporters seem happy to go along with this, and in fact talk as if this was always what was proposed. It reminds me of George Orwell's 1984 where history is rewritten to support the present day - I am waiting for the Government to announce the setting up of a new Department called the Ministry of Truth.
Gerontios
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