SO goodbye, au revoir, auf wiedersehen and good riddance, pet.
The UK has finally left the European Union.
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The longer term begins now.
It may not really feel prefer it in Lockdown Britain however that is the primary weekend of true nationwide sovereignty for 47 years.
And regardless of the Covid-19 restrictions, we are able to style freedom, particularly as Brexit was signed, sealed and delivered on the identical candy day the Oxford coronavirus vaccine acquired the inexperienced gentle.
The UK is a worldwide, free-trading sovereign nation as soon as extra and our future is in our personal fingers.
Remainers and Leavers are as related to the nationwide debate as Tsarist Russians.
Liz Truss campaigned for us to remain within the EU however in her function as Secretary of State for Worldwide Commerce, Liz has finished post-Brexit commerce offers with 62 international locations — not together with the EU.
She will’t cease smiling.
“For years, all supposedly smart pundits in Europe have predicted that Brexit spells doom for Britain,” wrote Alexander von Schoenburg, editor of Bild, the German equal of The Solar.
“They must eat their phrases.”
Even Sir Keir Starmer ordered his Labour Party to cease sulking and vote for our commerce take care of Brussels.
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Tories scratched one another’s eyes out for many years over Europe.
Not any extra.
These true-blue Eurosceptics within the European Research Group are purring.
With 37 MPs rebelling in opposition to the deal, Europe is a Labour downside now.
Rebellious colony
The nastiest insult thrown on the 17.4million who voted to go away the EU was that we might quickly all die out.
However it hasn’t labored out that means.
Remainers are the endangered species now.
Brexit is finished, part of British historical past.
The one individuals nonetheless banging on about will probably be the eye- swivelling, die-hard Remoaners.
It’s doable to think about the likes of Tony Blair and John Major nonetheless bleating about Brexit till the day they lastly fall from their perch, squawking “Depraved Brexit!” with their dying breath.
We’ve not left Europe, in fact, for our neighbours are bonded to us by geography, tradition, commerce, historical past, holidays and prosecco.
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However we’ve lastly eliminated the life-denying hand of Brussels from our throats.
We’ve management of our legal guidelines, our borders, our commerce offers with the remainder of the world.
There shall be grumbles about our phrases of departure.
Some will say Boris Johnson bought out our fishing business.
However our fishermen — or “fisherpeople”, because the BBC’s Europe Editor Katya Adler adorably calls them — have been bought out by then-PM Ted Heath almost half a century in the past.
On the opposite facet, misery-guts will whine a couple of “skinny deal”.
However this was a negotiation, not an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Boris — and our good chief negotiator Lord David Frost — acquired a commerce take care of the EU as a result of, in contrast to David Cameron and Theresa May, they have been all the time genuinely able to stroll away with no deal.
The European Union has handled the UK like a rebellious colony.
But when the historical past of our nation teaches us something, it’s that the British can’t be bullied.
Thank God it’s all over.
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What I really feel above all is reduction.
There have been 4 and a half years of nationwide torment.
Buddies falling out, households divided.
Wasted years of soiled tips by the Institution, years of the liberal elite making an attempt to dam the biggest vote for something in British historical past, years of Parliament, the Excessive Courtroom and the BBC conspiring to abort democracy.
However as soon as we had voted to go away the European Union, it needed to occur — regardless of how a lot it would harm the emotions of John Bercow, Gina Miller, Michael Heseltine, Lord Adonis, Gordon Brown, the BBC and that bloke who was within the Boomtown Rats.
Remaining after a majority had voted to go away would have poisoned British democracy.
Earlier than the referendum, it might need been doable to maintain the UK — the second-largest contributor to Brussels’ coffers — contained in the European Union.
If solely the EU had deigned to toss a couple of scraps into David Cameron’s begging bowl.
If solely the Institution had been capable of muster some empathy, understanding and primary human decency in direction of those that needed to protect our nationwide identification.
However it didn’t occur.
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The largely working-class women and men who voted to go away the EU have been brazenly abused because the referendum.
For wanting nothing greater than to regulate our personal future, the supporters of Brexit — that euphemism for nationwide sovereignty — have been insulted, denigrated and derided at each flip.
That’s the reason the democracy-denying Labour Celebration, with its 37 MPs rebelling in opposition to the deal, abruptly discover themselves dumped in historical past’s recycling bin.
That’s the reason the brazenly and grotesquely partisan BBC is now bitterly loathed by thousands and thousands who assist bankroll our bloated nationwide broadcaster and its laughably overpaid, hilariously pro-Stay stars.
However calling somebody a thick racist bigot is never a vote winner.
So the UK turns into the primary nation to honour a democratic vote that Brussels didn’t like, the primary nation to not have one other referendum as a result of we acquired it “improper” the primary time.
That must be a supply of nationwide pleasure — and a beacon of freedom to all of the individuals of Europe.
Boris talks so much about “our buddies” in Europe and it’s to be very a lot hoped that the European Union will be capable to deal with the UK nearly as good neighbours who can fortunately co-exist with out having a key to the opposite’s entrance door.
The British are Europe’s biggest followers. However the reality is that we have been by no means an excellent match within the EU.
What feels so unusual about this primary weekend of nationwide freedom is that that is the place we got here in half a lifetime in the past.
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A mutually useful commerce take care of our European neighbours was what the British have been instructed they have been voting for within the referendum of 1975.
All we ever needed was a typical market, not this “ever-closer union” baloney.
The very first vote I ever took half in was the European referendum of 1975.
Ignoring the eloquent voices of Labour’s Tony Benn and Peter Shore, who argued that we might be forfeiting freedoms others had fought and died for, I cheerfully voted to be part of this groovy new frequent market.
However the EU has modified through the years.
It might need began with noble aspirations — to bond the nations of Europe so intently with commerce that one other devastating conflict was unthinkable — however it remodeled into an expansionist empire, boastful, unaccountable, uncaring, corrupt and obscenely inefficient.
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus jab is the product of German scientific brilliance, simply because the Oxford vaccine is the product of British scientific genius.
However Brussels purple tape means the EU is weeks behind the UK in rolling out vaccinations of the German jab — a large bureaucratic cock-up that shall be paid for with European jobs and lives.
We’re higher off out of it, not least as a result of because the British voted to go away, the EU has handled this nation with spectacular disrespect.
The UK needed an amicable parting of the methods. The EU needed to humiliate us.
The UK needed independence.
The EU needed revenge porn.
The Brussels massive pictures by no means understood the British.
Custody of the fish
The self-satisfied previous geezers who’ve constructed profitable careers in Brussels — haughty chief negotiator Michel Barnier, sneering former president of the European Council Donald Tusk, fun-loving Jean-Claude Drunker — handled this nation as an insubordinate satellite tv for pc.
In its dealings with Cameron, Might and Boris, the EU tried to deliver the UK to heel.
The EU by no means understood a rustic that has not been invaded for 1,000 years.
The EU is formed by the sad historical past of its nations — the expertise in residing reminiscence of fascism and communism, invasion and occupation, ready for his or her liberty to be delivered by someone else’s military. Often ours.
It by no means understood that the British don’t share its custom of give up and submission.
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Brussels will cheer each UK failure within the coming years.
And who desires to be a member of a membership that tries to provide you a punishment beating simply since you need to go away?
However full credit score the place it is because of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen — the primary lady to guide the EU — for enjoying her half in serving to to conclude the divorce with out an excessive amount of bitterness over custody of the fish.
The disaster of no deal would have been much more possible underneath her erratic predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, particularly after an excellent lunch.
Let’s hope we may be buddies.
However historical past teaches us no empire lasts for ever.
And future historians will file that Brexit marked the beginning of the European Union’s decline.
The EU tried to bully us.
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JEREMY CLARKSON
I hate to break a celebration however 2021 will make 2020 appear to be a stroll within the park
BEAR GRYLLS
Now could be the time to honour our Scout promise by becoming a member of The Solar’s Jabs Military name
To its eternal shock, Boris Johnson stood up to it.
In doing so, he did far more than simply “get Brexit done.”
He preserved British democracy.
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