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It's been four years since the Brexit vote: everything and nothing has changed | Anand Menon

The promises of a new settlement for the UK have yet to materialise. Coronavirus makes that even more urgent On this day in 2016, 72% of the UK’s electorate headed to the polls in the EU referendum. Four years on, one can hardly fail to be struck by the subsequent transformation of politics. Yet the consequences in terms of substantive policy have been significantly more limited. Brexit, to date, has changed everything and nothing. Let’s start with the most obvious point. The UK’s relationship with the EU will be, and indeed has already been, profoundly altered as a result of the referendum. For all the doubts as to whether the result of the referendum would be honoured or not, it has been. Britain’s membership ended on 31 January. And the rupture promises to be far more severe than many observers expected at the time. Continue reading...
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