The Booker prize winner described a dystopian Britain. But haven’t we been living in that since Brexit? | Zoe Williams

Earlier this week, discussions on a dystopian Britain where the government had disintegrated but people carried on as before, with the country isolated internationally and missing Europe yet unable to visit, could have been describing post-Brexit Britain in 2022. In fact, these were the plot points of Booker prize-winning novel 'The End of Everything' by M John Harrison, who at 81 became the oldest winner of the award and the first science fiction writer to do so.

The past decade of British politics has taken on the dreamlike quality of a novel, not through allegory but because a new reality simply arrived after the 2016 referendum. For four years, Brexit dominated discourse, banishing compromise and practicality. Other political decisions were filtered through which candidate would perform best on Brexit, which itself became increasingly magical in conception.

Economic consequences

Since Britain officially left the EU in 2020, the country has faced a sad, humbling process as Brexit's fiction attempted to impose rules on reality—with reality consistently winning. The destruction of relationships with major trading partners has inevitably harmed prosperity. Related fantasies, such as the notion that immigrants 'leech money,' have also taken their toll, with reduced net migration bleeding money from the economy and anti-foreign student campaigns creating chaos in universities.

Some Brexit effects will be permanent, including wasted time and lost growth that the UK can never recover. The economic doldrums persist, with no easy answers in sight, yet the political establishment continues to frame discussions around which old wounds can be tolerably reopened rather than questioning whether those wounds were merely rhetorical constructs.

Shifting attitudes

Polling reveals significant shifts in public opinion about Brexit. While 57% of Britons now agree Brexit was a bad idea, only 30% think it was the right choice. More strikingly, 73% of Tories, 59% of leave voters, and even a majority of Reform voters now back a youth mobility scheme—an idea previously rejected by Keir Starmer as too 'remainey.' Many politicians on both sides have wished pollsters would stop asking about immigration as attitudes harden, though electoral expedience has most toed the party line.

Political realignment

Andy Burnham's first major statements as prime minister represent a potential radical improvement on previous politics. His framing of Brexit—asking if the UK should 'just take another look'—deceptively mild though it may be, resonates more with the electorate that wants this 'nightmare to end' than with the political establishment focused on reopening old wounds rather than turning the page.

While Burnham catching up with public opinion is heartening and necessary, his party needs to follow suit. The path forward requires ditching red lines and the specious idea of a fixed, unified 'red wall,' instead dealing with the world as it has evolved in kaleidoscopic ways both in the UK and the EU.