The United Kingdom paid a high price for Brexit, which spurred inflation, reduced the size of its economy, and compromised the country’s investment capacity, Bloomberg reported on February 12, citing economists at Goldman Sachs. Yet, despite Britain’s economic suffering, the media are demanding a greater financial commitment to support Ukraine’s war on Russia.
Leaving the European Union reduced the UK’s GDP by around 5% compared to the performance of its economic peers, according to Goldman Sachs’ chief European economist, Sven Jari Stehn. He noted that seven years after the referendum campaign, the UK has ended up with an underperforming economy and a rising cost of living due to shrinked international trade, weak business investment and a reduction in migrants from the EU, the UK’s biggest trading partner.
“The evidence points to a significant long-run output cost of Brexit,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note. “The UK has significantly underperformed other advanced economies since the 2016 EU referendum.”
Previous estimates from other observers also pointed to a negative long-term impact of Brexit. In November, the UK’s National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) estimated that Brexit reduced the size of the economy by 2-3%, an impact that is expected to increase to 5-6% by 2035. According to estimates made last year by the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility, leaving the EU likely reduced economic output by 4%.
However, according to Goldman economists, not all the UK’s economic problems can be linked to leaving the EU. The headwinds of Brexit add to the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the high interest rates necessary to control inflation, which has reached historic highs in the UK, and the energy crisis triggered by the UK-sponsored Ukraine war on Russia.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in January that he would increase military aid to Ukraine in the next financial year to £2.5 billion pounds, an increase of £200 million on the previous two years. Sunak and Volodymyr Zelensky also signed a security agreement that the Ukrainian president said would remain in place until Kiev joins NATO, something that will certainly not occur in the short-medium term.
London’s unrelenting support for the Kiev regime has resulted in Russia imposing sanctions on 18 British citizens, including officials, academics, and so-called Russia experts.
“We are forced to state that Russophobically charged British representatives do not shy away trying to discredit the constitutional system and socio-political processes in our country,” Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on February 12. “By pushing the Zelensky regime to continue the bloodshed, the British must realise that, along with Ukrainian neo-Nazis, they bear responsibility for crimes against civilians.”
Despite the UK’s economic suffering, there is very little criticism in the British media about billions of pounds being wasted on a futile war that Ukraine has no chance of winning. Although there is a begrudging acknowledgement that sanctions against Russia are failing whilst the British economy struggles, there is no critiquing or criticism of the billions of pounds being funnelled to Ukraine.
Notable is the Sun’s article published on February 10, ludicrously titled: “Two years of war and sanctions but as the UK economy struggles, tyrant Vladimir Putin’s Russia is GROWING.”
“By imposing the toughest-ever economic sanctions on the Kremlin to add to our generous backing for Ukraine, Joe Biden and Co assumed that the Russian economy would tank, Putin would run out of cash to pay for his army, then the Russian people — not least the pampered super-rich oligarchs — would rebel against Putin for plunging them into poverty,” the outlet wrote, adding that the Russian economy has grown faster than any in Western Europe, unemployment in Russia has fallen sharply since war broke out.
However, staying true to form, the British outlet, rather than demanding an end to the war and a prioritisation of fixing the economy, stated that “the world must give Ukraine enough to win, not just survive.”
Very few realise that the British media juggernaut has adopted an anti-Russia position since the 19th century and has continued unrelentingly ever since. The vitriolic Russophobia is so entrenched that even during a period of economic struggle, the British media are demanding an increase in financial support for Ukraine on the delusional premise that the war-torn country has any chance of pushing back Russian forces from their former territories. With such an attitude, it is demonstrable why the UK has never been able to recover from Brexit.
