Here’s a prediction. Future historians will look back on just 16 words and reflect on the extraordinary self-harm they caused the UK in the first quarter of the 21st century. Those 16 words are: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?” That was the question asked in 2016 of UK voters over the age of 18 who took part in their country’s supposedly “advisory” Brexit referendum.
History teaches that future generations sometimes look back on their ancestors and wonder: “What on Earth were they thinking?” Brexit already fits into that category. Vote Leave narrowly won the referendum and the UK left the EU. But far from ending arguments about the country’s relationship with Europe, these arguments have never gone away. They have intensified in almost a decade of recriminations, regret, rethinks and now renegotiations.
One result is the miserable state of the UK’s Conservative party that brought its people Brexit. They are in deep trouble, intellectually adrift, led (for now at least) by the hapless Kemi Badenoch, bereft of ideas, lacking real talent and facing challenges from the right and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. It would of course be foolish to underestimate the survival instincts of the party of Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. The Tories will probably recover eventually.
But Brexit won’t. Brexit is already brain dead, clinging on life support.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is reluctant to bury it, at least for now. But they appear to be gradually changing UK-EU relations towards something that looks like Brexit in name only, with their new deal to reduce trade friction and costly border bureaucracy. This will eventually enable UK goods and holidaymakers to pass more rapidly through European seaports and airports. These and other changes have been welcomed by supermarkets, retailers, exporters and meat and food processors across the country, plus many individual businesses and trade organisations, and by the public.
The deal is of course opposed by the people who helped bring the country the Brexit fiasco – Ms Badenoch and Mr Farage. They claim the new deal is a “betrayal” of the referendum result. But since the referendum was a supposedly “advisory” vote on that vague 16-word question, the Brexit bunch are left fighting yesterday’s political battles.
It is unlikely the UK ever achieve as good a deal with the EU as that negotiated by Thatcher. Even so, the world has changed unimaginably since the 2016 vote
It is true that since 1945, UK politicians have constantly argued and dithered about their country’s relationship with Europe. After the Second World War, as former US secretary of state Dean Acheson memorably put it, “Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role”. Mr Acheson believed the obvious role meant the UK joining with other Europeans.
US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies may confirm that observation and accelerate that process in future. Even so, the UK has often been reluctant to accept that its islands are tied by geography and history to the European continent just 40 kilometres from its shores. In 1952, France and Germany created the European Coal and Steel Community, followed in 1957 by the European Economic Community (later the EU). The UK did not get on board until 1973. Later, Mrs Thatcher negotiated hugely beneficial terms for the UK in the EU, but Brexit upended all that and upended her Conservative party too.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson ruthlessly got rid of Conservative MPs who opposed the UK’s exit from the EU. The resulting Brexit deal was a mess of trade restrictions, border checks, bureaucracy, long queues of lorries and forlorn UK holidaymakers delayed at EU passport control. This debacle explains why the Conservatives are currently enduring their fourth leader in three years under Ms Badenoch. Astonishingly, the Tories are now so unpopular in opinion polls that they lie fourth behind the governing Labour party, the Liberal Democrats and the upstart Reform UK.
Three things are now absolutely clear.
First, the UK’s people overwhelmingly think Brexit was a mistake. Second, while few politicians dare speak about “overturning” Brexit, the “reset” announced by Mr Starmer is the beginning of the end for the Brexit delusion. Third – unfortunately – it is unlikely that the UK will ever achieve in future as good a deal with the EU as that negotiated by Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s.
Even so, the world has changed unimaginably since the 2016 vote – changed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mr Trump’s unpredictability and the constant threats about trade wars and tariffs. More positively, many European governments understand the value of the UK’s defence industry, its military and its support for a secure Europe. Many people in the UK also now more clearly understand their common European home and the need to work together with their closest neighbours, friends and trading partners.
Recent YouGov polling reflects how the public mood has changed. Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of Britons think Brexit has failed. More than half (53 per cent) say they would vote to rejoin the EU. Unfortunately, rejoining doesn’t appear to be an option. And if the UK’s people ever vote in any future referendum, it needs to be more carefully constructed than that vaguely phrased sentence of 16 ill-defined words that got the country into the Brexit mess in the first place.
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
Read more about the coronavirus
THE SPECS
2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid LE
Engine: 1.8 litre combined with 16-volt electric motors
Transmission: Automatic with manual shifting mode
Power: 121hp
Torque: 142Nm
Price: Dh95,900
ILT20%20UAE%20stars
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
FORSPOKEN
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Diablo%20IV
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The%20Legend%20of%20Zelda%3A%20Tears%20of%20The%20Kingdom
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Assassin's%20Creed%20Mirage
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Starfield
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
The years Ramadan fell in May
EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Third-place play-off: New Zealand v Wales, Friday, 1pm
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Brief scores:
Toss: Australia, chose to bat
Australia: 272-9 (50 ov)
Khawaja 100, Handscomb 52; Bhuvneshwar 3-48
India: 237 (50 ov)
Rohit 56, Bhuvneshwar 46; Zampa 3-46
Player of the Match: Usman Khawaja (Australia)
Player of the Series: Usman Khawaja (Australia)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.7L/100km
On sale: now
Price: Dh149,000
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club
- 1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
- 2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
- 3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
- 4th ODI, Sunday, April 16
Squads:
- UAE: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
- Zimbabwe: Peter Moor (captain), Solomon Mire, Brian Chari, Regis Chakabva, Sean Williams, Timycen Maruma, Sikandar Raza, Donald Tiripano, Kyle Jarvis, Tendai Chatara, Chris Mpofu, Craig Ervine, Brandon Mavuta, Ainsley Ndlovu, Tony Munyonga, Elton Chigumbura
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
