“British politics is shackled to a corpse. Undoing those chains would leave everyone better off. A closer relationship with Europe is the quickest and easiest way… to generate growth” V good on our “zombie politics” and its deadening impact. @duncanrobinson.bsky.social economist.com/britain/2025... - ThreadSky

13sarahmurphy.bsky.social • 3 days ago

“British politics is shackled to a corpse.
Undoing those chains would leave everyone better off. A closer relationship with Europe is the quickest and easiest way… to generate growth”

V good on our “zombie politics” and its deadening impact.
@duncanrobinson.bsky.social
https://economist.com/britain/2025/04/09/zombie-politics-how-dead-man-dominates-british-politics

Comments

overunderclover.bsky.social•3 days ago

Its the press. They assign framing and always frame it as this is one irriversible vote never allowed to be revisited, even though it was (ill) advisory and with a campaign full of lies.

elsewhere55.bsky.social•2 days ago

Let's keep this in mind: 'Donald Trump’s tariff plan could undermine the Brexit deal between the EU and the UK for trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, a highly sensitive agreement designed to maintain the 1998 peace pact.'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/trump-tariffs-brexit-deal-northern-ireland

dfstwit.bsky.social•3 days ago

unbelievable “can’t see it, won’t see it” mentality

kuyvonbraun.bsky.social•3 days ago

Starmer says, "ya mutha..."

tritim.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hearing Starmer talk about "Our closest ally" in the US shows how we are disillusioned and shackled to that corpse, too. The US is not our ally; just because we speak the same language (well, sort of) doesn't make them culturally or politically similar to us.

musicienne.bsky.social•3 days ago

They were at one time (pre 1980 may be) but not any longer, especially under Trump.

petetheref.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm beginning to wonder what was the point of voting for the #Labour Party. Oh yes, it was to end the criminality of the #Conservative Party.
The #Liberal Democrats are committed to rejoining the #EU. There is a thunderstorm coming; hard rain will only be a bit part.

mutleyboy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Negotiate deal to rejoin. Call snap election & campaign on that deal. Win election. Rejoin & watch economy grow. 2029 campaign on record of growth. Landslide.

kaizhen.bsky.social•3 days ago

More than a closer relationship, Britain needs to say to the EU "Please baby! Please take me back! I need you. I was wrong. I'll be so good. Please!!"

andykbe.bsky.social•3 days ago

In Reform's minds, it is still a 1945 that never really existed

helenh.bsky.social•2 days ago

The Labour government at the very least needs to explain its stance on Europe. It is unfathomable to most people to hold to damaging red lines while making huge cuts in public spending.

jacobitebyname.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm still angry nine years on. In a few months I shall have to surrender my expiring red EU passport for a boring black one that gives me no rights whatsoever, and meekly (symbolically) surrenders me to brexshit against my choice. FUCK BREXSHIT!

simoninfuriated.bsky.social•2 days ago

Exactly that. When I return from le Touquet next month I’ll be the last of my family to hand over my eu passport and get that shit stained black one. Pissed-Off doesn’t cover it.

anthonyf272.bsky.social•3 days ago

I read the first line and thought it meant the government. For goodness sake, we cannot go on like this, it is embarassing.

cathmartin59.bsky.social•3 days ago

Not @greenparty.org.uk
Confident from the outset this is wrong for the country.

chloew1656.bsky.social•3 days ago

Hands up if you have an elderly relative pass since they voted for Brexit.

👋

stuzipants.bsky.social•3 days ago

Word for word brilliance

macburns.bsky.social•1 day ago

They are changing the Laws in the UK further and further away from the EU you can't rejoin again untill you abide by our Laws.

kingstondan.bsky.social•3 days ago

2016. A moment in time when the country accidentally shot itself in the foot. Now, the majority are desperate to heal the gangrenous wound, but those that could provide medical care are withholding it.

This was yet another tortured brexit analogy.

glesga-grognard.bsky.social•3 days ago

but you can almost hear the whines of "But the special relationship" from all the usual suspects.

kuyvonbraun.bsky.social•3 days ago

That would be Starmer’s office in Downing Street…

quantumchico.bsky.social•3 days ago

Seems obvious that the powers that be higher up than Starmer and Co won't allow it to go ahead 🤔

cmirar.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

padrob.bsky.social•3 days ago

Someone needs to tell the politicians to do what apparently the majority of people want. Which is to be back in Europe or at the least have a real free trade agreement with Europe

beajaye.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's a dead country, a back water. Never recovered from WW2. In fact never really recovered since the Romans left.

samanthasearrings.bsky.social•3 days ago

Archaeologists say that the local population never accepted Roman lifestyle outside of the civitas, so once the political and legal structure went the cities were abandoned. The Romans did not in fact do very much in Britain. Britain was a province without a senator, a backwater.
So, maybe the

samanthasearrings.bsky.social•3 days ago

Tudors, Stuarts and Hanoverians were actually who you were thinking of.

foreversideways.bsky.social•3 days ago

Only those with the brain capacity of a MAGA supporter voted for Brexit

scottishkaren.bsky.social•1 day ago

Imagine how the Scot’s feel. Shackled to the dire corrupt corpse of WM.

rachel4742.bsky.social•3 days ago

Compliant Client State 🚫

Equal Partner ✅️

#DumpTrump Exit #Brexit

sylvie-62.bsky.social•3 days ago

Two parties are rabidly committed. The third has no principles but instead has McSweeney, no moral compass, no intellectual depth, no sense of history… just a nightmare

officialstehee.bsky.social•2 days ago

British politics is the reanimated corpse, made live again with every General Election.

chris7ben.bsky.social•2 days ago

The ConLab vision of a Sovereign Corporation won’t allow the UK to rejoin the EU.

eileen13.bsky.social•3 days ago

Seems like the corpse is buried in a lead lined coffin and the epitaph to Brexit etched into a marble headstone. Both will take years to decompose and erode.

fincoot.bsky.social•2 days ago

"we CAN'T undo brexit! it was done by law! Umpossible!"
Maybe Starmer make a referendum huh?

Betting on the US was clearly and obvious aforethought a bad plan
BTW is boris being carried by tumbril to Tyburn on the schedule? I'd book a flight to see that.

tommacuaidh.bsky.social•3 days ago

Read “Scotland” for “British Politics” to start off. Get rid of FPP voting, ask someone to write you a constitution and give Chuck and his gold hat a P45.

samanthasearrings.bsky.social•3 days ago

Tom. If we had a written constitution in 2019, Johnson would have burnt it before our eyes and Cummings would have sacked all of Whitehall, then started on GCHQ. What stopped them is that the head of the civil service and the police in Downing Street swear an oath to the Crown. They would have

samanthasearrings.bsky.social•3 days ago

dragged the pair of them out and tasered them on Downing Street in front of all the tourists if they had attempted a Trump.

craiggrannell.bsky.social•3 days ago

Part of the problem is polling suggests no great thirst from the public to join the EU either. UK wants a better relationship, but SM/CU/EU don’t poll amazingly, and as soon as “but £” enters the equation, “stay out” pulls ahead of “join” in some polls.

We’re not ready. But media isn’t helping.

13sarahmurphy.bsky.social•3 days ago

People can’t be bothered with it. It’s all been such a nightmare. But yes, if media told a different story, public opinion would likely shift quite fast.

craiggrannell.bsky.social•3 days ago

I imagine if the combined Libs and Greens had the same media platform as Farage alone *and* were brave enough to really push the pro-EU platform, that might move the needle. Maybe we’d see enough Labour figures join too. Much easier for the press to do a daily Farage briefing though.

rootvegserf.bsky.social•3 days ago

"...in the minds of British politicians, where it is forever 2016..." and where the USA is a trusted and reliable ally, economically and militarily.

There's only one way to deal with a mad dog. (or a mad government or a mad country)

sallyinfrance.bsky.social•3 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/joshuajfriedman.com/post/3lmid3vz6tc2q

firmlyaground.bsky.social•3 days ago

Cup Winners 1966

pablothefluffycat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Great article and SO true! As someone working in tourism and hospitality (very badly affected by Brexit), I am always amazed at how much time the main political parties (especially on the right) spend talking about fishing, when that employs far fewer people than tourism and hospitality.

evssimon.bsky.social•3 days ago

The corpse is kept warm by the MSM though. Dimbleby's #bbcr4 hagiography of the Thatcher years a case in point. Privatisation, despite all contrary evidence, presented as emancipatory. Redwood, a maverick hero. Ffs.

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