"Sold down the river"

Us lefty Remainers bemoaning Brexit is only to be expected; it's more significant that so many Leave voters are also appalled by how things have panned out since the referendum a decade ago.

This Guardian article hints at the level of frustrated expectation and disillusionment nationwide. Many of those who backed Brexit - perhaps even most? - feel at best let down and at worst betrayed. In the words of Tony Rutherford, it's been an "absolute nightmare, shambles". David Milne, who also works in the fishing industry, is equally scathing about broken promises and "lies". Certainly, no one - whether in the article or generally - appears willing to celebrate Brexit as an unqualified success.

Of course, some Leavers will maintain that Brexit was the right course of action but that its implementation has been botched and that it could still be done "properly" (by a Reform government). However, I get the sense that it's dawned on a lot of people that "taking back control" - of our borders, of our economy, of our laws - and asserting our sovereignty was a naive jingoistic fantasy in a neoliberal, globalised world, that they were deliberately duped, and that we've made a colossal mistake.

And it's a mistake with enormous consequences. As the interviewees involved in politics make clear, for instance, Brexit has had a volcanic impact on the political landscape, facilitating the eruption of Reform while burying and obliterating traditional parties on both right and left. Even if moves were to be made to rejoin the EU, its effects will be felt for decades into the future.