Originally published on eve.gd on 7 December 2023, last updated 6 September 2026.
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A letter to the Editor of the Guardian, who declined to publish it.
Dear Madam,
Your Economics Editor, Larry Elliott (5th December, “I’ve got news for those who say Brexit is a disaster: it isn’t. That’s why rejoining is just a pipe dream”), offers an opinion piece that appears to be based on little more than his own insular view.
While Mr Elliott writes that “the UK has not witnessed the rise of the nasty nationalism seen across the Channel”, ample evidence directly contradicts this. Professor Mike Savage at the LSE, for instance, has charted how “instances of racist hate crimes have surged in the UK since the 2016 Brexit referendum”. Further, the government’s recent policies all have “nasty nationalistic” overtones; be it in stopping the small boats, deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, or imposing unrealistic salary thresholds for migration, along with punitive family immigration arrangements.
Rejoining the EU may be a pipe dream. But not because Britain is the land of hope and tolerance painted by Mr Elliott.
Yours,
Professor Martin Paul Eve
Dr Ernesto Priego
This reference list has been generated, in many cases, through an automated process and may therefore contain errors or incomplete metadata. It is provided purely as assistance for finding the items mentioned within this post.
1. Elliott, Larry, ‘I've got news for those who say Brexit is a disaster: it isn't. That's why rejoining is just a pipe dream’, The Guardian, 5 December 2023 <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/05/brexit-disaster-rejoining-channel-europe-economy?CMP=share_btn_tw>
2. Savage, Mike, ‘Nationalism and racism in post-Brexit Britain’, The London School of Economics and Political Science <https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/politics/are-the-elites-driving-nationalism-in-post-brexit-britain>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/05/brexit-disaster-rejoining-channel-europe-economy?CMP=share_btn_tw
https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/politics/are-the-elites-driving-nationalism-in-post-brexit-britain