I think this is spot on from today’s @TheEconomist but the reason this was possible is a failed media-political culture that focused on horse race and both-sidesism rather than scrutiny and challenge.
And scrutiny of policy was replaced by either Paxman-style shouting or breathless court journalism, both of which make politics all about the personality across the table rather than the ideas or policies they are standing for.
Everyone with five minutes policy experience saw that Brexit could not succeed politically or in policy terms except at a huge price that had never been presented to voters. Where was the challenge? Opinion pages of the FT don’t count.
There is an enormous reckoning needed in British media and politics and now the fever is starting to pass the UK needs to look at what cultures and process need to be put in place to prevent this sort of system collapse ever happening again.
Originally posted as a thread of 4 tweets on Twitter on 8 July 2022. View the original thread.