Big Ben salutes Brexit

Big Ben, the famous chime clock in the Westminster Palace, will sound its chimes during this New Year’s Eve after 2 years of silence. Big Ben went silent in 2017 because of some extensive restoration works which will be completed in 2021.

The irony of it all is that these chimes will also mark the UK entrance in the Brexit year. By 31st of January 2020 UK will have already left the European Union if it’s to believe the determined the British PM Boris Johnson. Anyway, Brexit process entered its final phase and everybody agrees now there is no turning back.

Will it be better for the British? Will it be better for a European Union without United Kingdom? Will Scotland finally get its independence following a second referendum and apply for another European Union membership, this time as an independent state? Only time will tell, but it’s clear that both some of the British and most of the Europeans already feel sad about this “divorce”.

And, talking about divorce, as in real live, United Kingdom, which is the guilty spouse here (sorry for the comparison!), has to pay the divorce bill of EUR 45 billion or about 39 billion pounds. PM Boris Johnson said he would agree the payment in case of a Brexit deal and there are big chances for this to actually happen. That’s 39 billion pounds in addition to the 66 billion pound already lost by UK because of Brexit, according to some economic studies. That’s 105 billion pounds altogether, if the cost of Brexit won’t go higher than that in the following years.

In our opinion, UK has the resources to flourish in the years to come, but it’s a fact Brexit slowed down the economy so far and there are experts who think it will continue to do so in the first years after the separation from the European Union.

Hopefully, Big Ben will also salute some very prosperous, happy and politically peaceful years for the British people in the years to come!