Letter From London, March 2029

A message from post-Brexit Britain about what the 2019 split from the EU hasn’t delivered.

- John Fraher

King William V’s Bentley pulls out of RAF Northolt air base into the gray London morning. Britain’s new monarch settles into the ride to Buckingham Palace and steels himself for the weeks ahead. The 10th anniversary of Brexit looms and with it a litany of ceremonies to mark the Festival of New Britain.

The celebrations were supposed to observe the moment the U.K. finally extricated itself from the European Union in 2019 after months of parliamentary drama, political rancor, and a final market panic. It was, its proponents say, the moment when Britain finally seized its destiny in a world rattled by the unstoppable forces of globalization and technology.

But as the electric-powered Bentley hums along into London, William asks himself whether it was all really worth it. He taps on his smartphone, where the headlines seem to confirm those doubts. The U.K.’s only remaining car manufacturer has just announced plans to move its operations to Poland. Trade talks with the U.S. are going nowhere. And yet another opinion poll shows that a majority in Northern Ireland want to reunite with the south.

Britain in 2029 feels even angrier and more uncertain of its place in the world than the nation that voted for Brexit 13 years ago. If the vote reflected a desire to “take back control,” the separation from the EU doesn’t seem to be working. Most worryingly, the threads that bind the U.K. together appear to be coming undone. The poll from Northern Ireland will just encourage Scottish nationalists as they gear up for a 2030 independence vote. Everyone expects them to win.

In times of crisis, the monarch is supposed to bring the nation together. But as the suburbs of West London flit past, William wonders if anyone could do that now.