Brexit and British Bankruptcy, Ten Years Later

British Independence could have triggered a turnaround, but it is hard now to see how Britain’s leaders can work their way out of the current cycle of decay.

by Newt Gingrich

Ten years ago, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union was a potential opportunity. It could have allowed Britain to pivot and develop new rules and approaches to prosper as a highly educated, competitive economy in the world market.

This transition to competitiveness, creativity, and British-centered policies which rejected the Brussels bureaucracy had happened once before.

A generation earlier, in 1979, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher led the Conservative Party to a historic victory on a platform of dramatic reforms. Thatcher won three general elections. By the time she left office in 1990, the coal miners’ union had been tamed, much of the civil service had been reformed, many government-owned institutions had been privatized, and entrepreneurial free enterprise was at its high point in modern British history.


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