Sky’s Sophy Ridge just obliterated all the Brexit problems we are still facing on the fourth anniversary of the UK’s official departure from the EU.
While Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson recently praised the UK’s newfound “Brexit freedoms” and ex-PM Boris Johnson celebrated four years without the EU, there’s no denying Brexit continues to cast a shadow over British politics.
Almost eight years after Brits voted to leave the bloc, and exactly four years since we finally left it, it is far from resolved.
In fact, as Ridge noted last night, there are still many promises yet to be fulfilled and ongoing crises which Downing Street has not figured out how to resolve.
For example, while it looks like power-sharing in Stormont’s Northern Ireland Assembly is about to be restored after a long-running Brexit row, the issue at the heart of the conflict remains.
Ridge noted: “Where do you put the post-Brexit border between the EU and the UK?
“On the island of Ireland? Down the Irish Sea? And this is a problem that hasn’t been, and maybe can never be resolved.”
She continued: “And it’s not the only thing on the outstanding Brexit to-do list, either.
“For many, the reason for voting to leave the EU was to take back control of our border and frankly to bring down net migration.”
But Ridge noted how the Office for National Statistics projected that the UK population will grow to 74m in the next decade or so – including an extra 6.1m people through net migration.
“So, if Brexit was about controlling our borders, well, that hasn’t been done either,” the presenter said.
Ridge then listed a handful of other ways Brexit still has not delivered on the promises the Vote Leave campaign made.
She said: “Whether it’s though long promised trade deals, a no tax economy, freedom from the grip of European courts, or even something as simple as working out where our trade borders are, nearly eight years on, it’s hard to see how Brexit has been completed.”
The presenter wryly concluded: “If it were a computer game, I’m not really sure we’d even be at the boss level yet.”
You can watch the clip here: