Absurd as it is, we have spent the last decade bitterly arguing over a false binary. Still, we may not have to for much longer. The evident disconnect between Brexit the promise and Brexit the reality has made many of us keener to understand what actually happened.<\/p>\n
A popular assumption after the referendum was that the people had voted for \u201cBrexit at any cost\u201d and that any attempt to stand in their way would amount to treason. But no one could truly be sure what the British people might want; only that what we did not want under any circumstances was to subjugate ourselves to the will of others. Perversely \u2013 and most lamentably for our nation \u2013 allowing the drivers of Brexit to take us wherever they liked amounted to just that.<\/p>\n
Despite appearances, the architects of Brexit and their successors were in control from the start. Yet rather than disabuse the public of its misconception, they doubled down on the lie and cemented their position in the driving seat. They fed us meaningless tautologies and slogans like \u201cLeave means leave\u201d, \u201cBrexit means Brexit\u201d, and \u201cGet Brexit done\u201d, all of which served to limit discussion on what leaving the EU might genuinely mean \u2013 and the possibility that, on beholding the destination, the British people might prefer to turn back<\/a>. It was, on any analysis, a profoundly dishonest exercise.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s the thing about Brexit: it was ever thus. Even if the referendum question had offered voters a genuine choice, that choice was vitiated by the unprecedented level of deception<\/a> prevailing throughout. Only 11 days after the vote, Stephan Lewandowsky, a researcher on misinformation at Bristol University, wrote in the New Statesman: \u201cNever before in history has so much deception been unmasked so quickly and with so little shame.\u201d <\/p>\n One of the most pernicious and cruel things about subtle deceptions like Brexit is that unless you call out the deceivers and hold them to account, you enter cult-like unrealities from which it is extremely difficult to return. Often, part of the problem is psychological. People tend to be ashamed of having collaborated in their own exploitation. But many of those who voted Leave did so based on the false prospectus the masters of Brexit<\/a> offered them. And no one chooses to be defrauded. If you buy a Rolex and it turns out to be fake, can we safely say you chose it?<\/p>\n Few would wish to rake over old coals. At the same time, to move forward as one nation means confronting some uncomfortable truths<\/a> about the past. And top of the list is this: deception nullifies choice.<\/p>\n To assume choice where there\u2019s overwhelming evidence of dishonesty risks confining the deceived to the will of the deceiver and the belief that they have chosen their own fate. And to many, this will sound alarmingly like what has happened in post-Brexit Britain, and indeed across the pond.<\/p>\n![\"\u2018Few](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/boris-brexit-final-say.jpg\")
\u2018Few would wish to rake over old coals. At the same time, to move forward as one nation means confronting some uncomfortable truths about the past. And top of the list is this: deception nullifies choice\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n