Britain’s post-Brexit future looks bright – forget what the pessimists say

Although former British prime minister David Cameron sought to cow Britons into voting to remain in the European Union in 2016 through the infamous Project Fear, voters called his bluff.

The number of people who voted to leave the EU was higher than the number of votes cast for any government in British history, and the electorate knew what they were doing. Though assured during the 1975 membership referendum that they had joined a mere free trade area to promote harmony in Europe, by 2016 they knew they had been hoodwinked.

As Britain tried to deregulate, lower taxes, exploit developing markets and devolve power to the regions, the EU became more resistant to free trade, highly regulated, intolerant of public concerns, committed to a currency ruining its smaller economies and unable to control its borders. The EU is becoming a bureaucratic unitary state and the people have had enough.

Conservative MP Philip Hollobone estimates that, by 2019, the UK will have poured £209 billion (HK$2.21 trillion) into EU coffers. Despite Nato, a European army is now envisaged, for which taxpayers will again have to fork out, this time without British help.

The UK, after successful completion of preliminary divorce negotiations with the EU, can now look to a bright future as an independent trading nation. Signs are encouraging in terms of growth and investment.