{"id":2650953,"date":"2026-08-28T05:58:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/brexit-isnt-whats-dragging-britain-down\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T06:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T10:13:07","slug":"brexit-isnt-whats-dragging-britain-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/brexit-isnt-whats-dragging-britain-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit isn\u2019t what\u2019s dragging Britain down"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbrexit-isnt-whats-dragging-britain-down%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2650953&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article explores the interconnected perceptions of Brexit adn Donald Trump in American discourse,both symbols of populist challenge to the established international order. it notes that while Brexit and Trump&#8217;s rise occurred in the same year, their issues differed, yet they are linked through a populist wave overtaking customary power structures. The piece highlights that criticisms of Brexit often blame it for economic decline in the UK, citing drops in investment, productivity, and living standards. however, the article argues that Europe as a whole faces stagnation, with its economic decline dating back decades, characterized by slowing growth, high taxes, expansive social spending, and regulatory burdens. It emphasizes that Europe\u2019s economic issues are not solely due to Brexit, as the EU&#8217;s economic performance has declined parallel to the UK\u2019s. The piece cautions against conflating correlation with causation, suggesting Brexit isn&#8217;t the root cause of Britain\u2019s economic stagnation, which is linked to broader European structural problems.Ultimately, the article portrays Brexit as a distraction from more systemic global economic challenges.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In countless American minds, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/brexit\/\">Brexit<\/a> and President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> are linked, and not in a good way.<\/p>\n<p>The term Brexit is shorthand for \u201cBritish exit.\u201d The vote of more than 17 million <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/united-kingdom\/\">U.K. citizens<\/a> on a referendum to leave the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/european\/\">European Union<\/a> and Trump\u2019s shock election to the presidency both happened in the same year, 2016. The two events have come to be seen as part of the same demotic wave, pushing against the established international order, which has come to be called populism.<\/p>\n<p>Different issues were at play at those ballot queues, several months and an ocean apart. Trump collapsed all of the issues when he went to Scotland for a golf course opening not long after the vote.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, still a private citizen, said in a press conference that U.K. voters had \u201ctaken back their independence,\u201d and he saw a \u201cbig parallel\u201d brewing in other nations. \u201cNot only the United States, but [in] other countries, people want to take their country back,\u201d he said. He also called himself \u201cMr. Brexit,\u201d because he knew a popular bandwagon when he saw one.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the association, one way to root against Trump has been to highlight any failures of Brexit and to pin those failures on populist notions of independence and self-determination. For instance, The <em>Atlantic<\/em> magazine both features Trump skepticism as a part of its business model and blames Brexit for the United Kingdom\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\">Pro European Union campaigners hold flags near parliament as Britain\u2019s Prime Minister attends the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions in London on May 20. (Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/08\/localimages\/BizCover.090226.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pro European Union campaigners hold flags near parliament as Britain\u2019s Prime Minister attends the weekly session of Prime Ministers Questions in London on May 20. (Kirsty Wigglesworth\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An article in the July issue called Brexit one of the U.K.\u2019s \u201cself-sabotaging responses\u201d to world crises, which had \u201ccaused business investment to drop by 12 to 18 percent, productivity and employment to decline by about 3 to 4 percent, and, most striking, GDP per capita to fall by 6 to 8 percent,\u201d according to one study.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Atlantic<\/em> also repeated another meme-able finding that is being bandied about. The U.K.\u2019s output per person is \u201conly just above that of Mississippi, America\u2019s poorest state,\u201d and if you take London off the table, \u201cliving standards fall well below Mississippi\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report was written by Idrees Kahloon, a former Washington bureau chief for the <em>Economist<\/em>, which is another magazine that is also very much anti-Trump and anti-Brexit. He interviewed Nigel Farage, a past Brexit campaign leader and current leader of the party Reform UK.<\/p>\n<p>Farage has a reasonable shot of becoming the next U.K. prime minister. Kahloon asked about what he would do to reverse Britain\u2019s decline and made it clear that he was not impressed with the answers. The Reform UK leader was portrayed as a sort of Trump 3.0 who would only deepen his nation\u2019s dysfunction.<\/p>\n<p>One gaping problem with the anti-Brexit critique of the U.K. is that it ignores Europe. If it is true that the U.K. has stagnated because of Brexit, then we should expect the EU member countries that did not leave what began as a trade union and deepened into structures of supranational governance to be going full steam.<\/p>\n<p>That is not remotely the case. It is true that the U.K. has lagged or stagnated relative to the economy of the United States. But Europe has stagnated right along with it.<\/p>\n<p>The Growth Commission is an international organization of economists focused on how to nurture economic growth and remove impediments to that growth. A report prepared for the organization and published last year made it abundantly clear that not a whole lot of that has been happening in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the Renaissance, the world\u2019s structures have predominantly been created and codified by European hands,\u201d is how British economist Ewen Stewart opened the report. However, this is no longer the case and it is time to face the \u201charsh reality\u201d that \u201cEuropean power is in acute decline on almost every measure,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>As political power tends to follow economic power, the reverse is true as well. And the economic indicators are not great.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart wrote that in 1990, the current EU member countries were the world\u2019s single biggest economic bloc. They accounted for about one-quarter of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harris-announces-100-million-in-aid-to-ghana-during-meeting-with-akufo-addo\/\" title=\"Harris Announces 0 Million in Aid to Ghana During Meeting with Akufo-Addo\">world gross domestic product<\/a> as measured by purchasing power. By 2023, the EU was the third largest economic bloc. As for its GDP, the EU is about one-seventh of the global total. From first to third and one-quarter to one-seventh is quite the drop. What happened?<\/p>\n<p>Economic growth very nearly flatlined is what happened. Looking at a longer trend in the EU, Stewart wrote, \u201cwhat we see is GDP growth declining from 4.8% compound in the 1960s to 3.2% in the 1970s, then subsequently 2.1%, 2.2% and then 1% in the first decade of the new millennium \u2014 with a marginal rebound to 1.3% in the long decade from 2010 to 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4701237\/iowa-montana-plot-paramount-merger-fight-supreme-court\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Iowa and Montana plot taking Paramount merger fight to Supreme Court<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/business\/4700165\/deloitte-us-government-dei-settlement\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Consulting firm Deloitte to pay US government $21.5 million in DEI settlement<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/travel\/4698192\/trump-administration-races-to-overhaul-america-air-traffic-control-system-by-2028\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Trump administration races to overhaul America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pompeo-haley-slam-bidens-foreign-policy-decisions\/\" title=\"Pompeo, Haley slam Biden\u2019s foreign policy decisions\">air traffic control system<\/a> by 2028<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 id=\"h-what-went-wrong-with-europe\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What went wrong with Europe?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the 1970s, the U.K.\u2019s economy was an economic basket case with structural problems that would eventually sweep Margaret Thatcher with her market reforms into power. During that declinist period, Britain was said to be the \u201csick man of Europe.\u201d These days, the EU is something like the sick man of the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Growth Commission report spells out some of the things that have slowed growth in the EU. A looming problem is the size and scope of European governments.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<h2 id=\"h-europe-has-stalled-out\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Europe has stalled out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn Europe, the state generally accounts for between 44% and 55% of GDP, some ten points higher than North America and some twenty points higher than Asia,\u201d Stewart writes.<\/p>\n<p>European taxes are on average the highest in the world, and in many cases anti-competitive. Governments can be overgenerous in allowing write-offs for business expenses but most EU nations have erred in the other direction, which increases the tax burden on businesses, squeezes profits, and slows growth, the report argues, with copious charts.<\/p>\n<p>EU nations take a lot of that money to fund lavish social spending. Spending on welfare and social programs in \u201ceach of the four largest members of the Eurozone \u2026 exceeds 25% of GDP,\u201d Stewart reports. For perspective, he explains that social spending in those countries is a \u201cfigure that exceeds the entire tax take for all services in China.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are several other structural problems that the report calls out in the EU. These impediments to growth run from employment laws that companies hate to the world\u2019s highest energy prices to a great number of non-tariff barriers that might as well be tariffs, for their effects on prices and trade.<\/p>\n<p>In this highly regulated and taxed environment, you might be shocked to learn that there is a \u201clack of corporate dynamism and entrepreneurship\u201d as well.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-ice-cream-you-brexit\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ice cream, you Brexit<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Economists constantly harp on the difference between correlation and causation. Two things happening in rough sequence does not make the first event the cause of the second.<\/p>\n<p>Ice cream parlors regularly bulk up their orders in advance of the summer months, when it is hot out. That does not mean that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/government-watchdog-calls-on-new-york-pension-fund-to-divest-from-ben-and-jerrys-parent-company\/\" title=\"Government Watchdog Calls on New York Pension Fund to Divest From Ben and Jerry\u2019s Parent Company\">ice cream sales<\/a> cause seasonal warming.<\/p>\n<p>The same is true of the U.K. Sure, Brexit happened and Britain stagnated. Those were things that happened. It does not follow that Brexit caused the U.K.\u2019s stagnation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/in_focus\/4627758\/will-the-democratic-establishment-strike-back\/\"><strong>WILL THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT STRIKE BACK?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the U.K. had broken off from an EU that did fine without it, that would be an important data point for the failure of Brexit, but that is sadly not the case. Instead, the U.K. and the EU amount to sisters of the slump.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In their efforts to find their way out of that slump, Brexit is, at best, a distraction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Jeremy Lott (<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jeremylottdiary\">@jeremylottdiary<\/a>) is the author of several books, most recently <\/em>The Three Feral Pigs and the Vegan Wolf<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brexit and Trump are often linked negatively in U.S. views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2692,"featured_media":2650954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BizCover.090226.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[34754,13035,9168,5894],"class_list":["post-2650953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-economy","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BizCover.090226.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650953"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650958,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650953\/revisions\/2650958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2650954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}