After the Brexit deal was finalized, the UK and the EU now face the Gore Vidal trap. As the iconic American write once stated, “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.”
This statement can now be mirrored to politics and its logic of pushing both sides to make the other party’s relative failure the measure of their success.
UK and EU Rivalry
The distribution of the COVID-19 vaccinations shows how the two parties are now trying one-up each other. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bragged that the UK had done more than the rest of Europe.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary of Britain, took a petty turn and claimed that the reason why they were able to roll out the vaccine early is that they are a “much better country than every single one of them.”
This logic is less central for the rest of Europe, not least because they have so much more. Despite being more silent, the pride is still there, especially in EU countries where strong Eurosceptic politicians like Marine Le Pen might not highlight a liberated UK’s success.
Aside from Le Pen, France’s Europe minister Clement Beaune’s Twitter feed is filled with jabs towards the UK. One example was the night of Britain’s departure in December 2020; he tweeted a comment that he made to the LCI news channel stating that Britain is punishing itself by Brexit but that it was ” also necessary to show the price to be paid for leaving.”
No matter how much both parties object, the negotiations are over. The Brexit deal is now done, but that does not mean that they can permanently cut ties with the EU. Britain will still be in a state of permanent negotiation with the rest of Europe.
The government under Boris Johnson stated that the choice came down to being Canada or Australia, but they will be more like Switzerland, which endures numerous rounds of nitpicky negotiations with the rest of Europe punctuated by fits of retribution from Belgium. Although Britain will be greater than Switzerland power-wise, their dilemma will likely be the same.
The UK government has negotiated an amazing deal on trade in goods, but it seems like the favor is on the EU’s side. German cars can continue to be delivered in Britain and other manufactured products, in which the EU has a trade surplus with Britain.
For 80% of the British economy, almost everything remains on the table. That includes financial services, which is 10% of British exports.
As Beaune tweeted, around €6 billion or £5.3 billion worth of European trades left the London Stock Exchange for markets inside the EU on the first day of trading in 2021.
David Henig did an amazing report on trade for the advocacy group Best of Britain. He argues that the Johnson deal is only a framework for the future corporation, and he listed a long list of areas where it would be in Britain’s longer-term economic interest to secure more agreements. The lack of balance in power between the two parties is obvious.