I was talking with a colleague on Wednesday about the anti-corruption summit held in London in May. I said it felt like a lifetime ago. The colleague, who is Norwegian, laughed, and then pointed out that it was.
The UK was still in Europe.
Cameron and Osborne were in office.
There was an Opposition in the House of Commons.
The pound had yet to collapse in value.
Trump was not yet the GOP candidate for President in the US.
It was possible to believe there was an economic and political order.
No wonder it seemed so long ago, let alone hard to recall. It really was a very different time.
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But it doesn’t feel different. I wonder whether there will yet be a single acute episode that creates a visible, tangible change so that people (be they brexiters, bremainers, bregretters or whoever) realise that things are now different. Or will it be a constant trickle of small things and deferred things, all offset by a right wing press reassuring us that things have never been better. I suspect that no such acute episode will occur; we aren’t going to fall off a cliff, we’re just going to stroll downhill for a long, long time to reach that same bottom. Yes pre-23 June was a long time ago, but on the surface it feels difficult (for me) to demonstrate any actual change. Plus ca change?