Brexit 10 Years On: Proud Britons Rule Themselves

Brexit was ultimately about self-government. A decade later, it remains a landmark victory for democratic accountability and national sovereignty.

The argument: The Brexit vote 10 years ago, on June 23, 2016, was about self-rule; none of the alleged negatives of leaving the EU trump Britons' right to self-government.

WHY IT MATTERS

Ten years of unyielding elite opposition to Brexit combined with Britain’s general malaise have amplified calls to rejoin the EU. But to paraphrase the Hudson scholar John Fonte, here’s what’s at stake: will Britons be ruled by others, or will they rule themselves? With progressives throughout the West desiring to weaken national sovereignty—and thus democratic accountability—upholding Brexit is a vital interest of all Westerners.

Applying with gusto the adage “never let a crisis go to waste,” Britain’s EU enthusiasts attribute Britain’s ills to Brexit. They focus especially on the economy. But the argument is unsound. As Friedrich Hayek would have said, the economy is far too complex to analyze “what ifs” like the hypothetical effects of continued EU membership. The economic approach is also disingenuous, suggesting the EU is only about building a European single market to increase prosperity. As British EU adherents understand, the EU is not about economics; it is about utopian dreams of peace through supranational governance and diminished national sovereignty.