A quiet day for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, as service from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was suspended for at least 48 hours to try and control a new variant of coronavirus. The closures, a mere 10 days before Britain’s exit from the EU, was symbolic. Photo: Reuters A quiet day for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, as service from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was suspended for at least 48 hours to try and control a new variant of coronavirus. The closures, a mere 10 days before Britain’s exit from the EU, was symbolic. Photo: Reuters
A quiet day for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, as service from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was suspended for at least 48 hours to try and control a new variant of coronavirus. The closures, a mere 10 days before Britain’s exit from the EU, was symbolic. Photo: Reuters
Philip Bowring
Opinion

Opinion

Philip Bowring

Britain stuck with the consequences of bungled Brexit and coronavirus response

  • Britain could have painlessly left the EU with deals like Norway’s and Switzerland’s, but the arrogance of its political class let fantasies flourish long after the referendum and set a high price for blinkered English nationalism

Philip Bowring
Philip Bowring

Updated: 11:34pm, 26 Dec, 2020

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A quiet day for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, as service from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was suspended for at least 48 hours to try and control a new variant of coronavirus. The closures, a mere 10 days before Britain’s exit from the EU, was symbolic. Photo: Reuters A quiet day for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, as service from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was suspended for at least 48 hours to try and control a new variant of coronavirus. The closures, a mere 10 days before Britain’s exit from the EU, was symbolic. Photo: Reuters
A quiet day for the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, as service from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam was suspended for at least 48 hours to try and control a new variant of coronavirus. The closures, a mere 10 days before Britain’s exit from the EU, was symbolic. Photo: Reuters
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Philip Bowring

Philip Bowring

Philip Bowring has been based in Asia for 39 years writing on regional financial and political issues. He has been a columnist for the South China Morning Post since the mid-1990s and for the International Herald Tribune from 1992 to 2011. He also contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal, www.asiasentinel.com, a website of which he is a founder, and elsewhere. Prior to 1992 he was with the weekly Far Eastern Economic Review, latterly as editor.