Bucket hats are back. So, too, are the grim politics of early-1990s Britain
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskA little more than two years after Britain left the club, free movement has ended but not much else of that vision has come to pass. Relations with theare scratchier than ever. And yet paradoxically Britain has in many ways become more, not less, like itsAs a member, it was less heavily regulated than most other rich countries. It had more opt-outs frompolicies than anyone else.
Britain’s tax burden is set to be its heaviest since the late 1940s. Inflated by the response to covid-19, public spending is also near record levels. Employee national-insurance contributions, a proxy forsocial-security charges, have risen from 9% in the 1990s to over 13%. The main corporate-tax rate will go up from 19% to 25% next year. Public spending on health care has increased from a little over 8% ofaverage. The minimum wage has risen substantially in recent years.
On climate change, Mr Johnson is a fervent cheerleader for the net-zero target for carbon emissions, which Britain was the first European country to enshrine in law. He claims to be almost as keen on nuclear power as France. Promises to improve growth by relaxing tough planning laws have come to nothing in the face of voter opposition.
Some observers hope that working with European allies on Ukraine could presage a mending of fences with theseminar that Ukraine had shattered the British illusion that it could turn its back on Europe when it comes to security, though he added that it would take a new prime minister to accept this obvious conclusion.
That would exemplify another paradox of post-Brexit Britain. As a member Britain was renowned for punctiliously observing all the’s rules. Yet Mr Johnson, who was recently found to have broken domestic law on covid restrictions, now threatens to break international law by unilaterally repudiating a treaty he himself signed and ratified barely two years ago.
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