My BIT time this week went towards writing another piece for the EncompassEU web page, the ‘regular’ BIT will be back next weekend.

Monday 31 January 2022 marked the 2nd anniversary of the UK’s official exit from the European Union. At this symbolically important moment, the Johnson government and other Brexiters are keen to convince the British public that Brexit is working. Thus, to mark the occasion the government published a report on ‘The Benefits of Brexit.’ The 102-page long document lists everything from rolled-over trade deals, over the new trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) with the EU itself, to the famous crown stamp mark on pint glasses as undisputable benefits of Brexit. However, despite its impressive volume, according to Chris Grey, the report simply lists “a mish-mash of things that are untrue, or true but misleading or of trivial or questionable value.” Most fundamentally, the report is deeply flawed because it does not provide a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of Brexit to date, but simply ignores any costs, focussing thus on gross benefits. Read the full article here.