Photo taken on Oct. 19, 2019 shows the European Union flag and the Union Jack flag outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
Will Brexit be like the vampire in Bram Stoker's classic novel, 'Dracula', continuing to haunt when everyone thinks it's done?
by Xinhua writer Gui Tao
LONDON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.
The words of Italian politician Antonio Gramsci decades ago prove as relevant today to the seemingly endless Brexit.
The biggest morbid symptom of politics in Britain is that its exit out of the world's largest trading bloc, the European Union (EU), seems shambolic, divisive, and, most notably, never ending.
Brexit, the most serious domestic crisis Britain has faced in the modern era, with all of its splits, plots and acrimony, has consumed almost the entire British political system and has raised doubts worldwide about the viability of the Western democratic system.
Photo taken on Dec. 20, 2019 shows the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)
This unprecedented geopolitical event aims, according to Brexiteers, to rejuvenate a declining Britain, whose soul-searching has never stopped since the transformative world wars of the 20th century.
But it turns out to tie up every shred of its political energy, distracting the country from tackling its real problems, especially its already troubling levels of inequalities and its clapped-out economy.
After the Brexit beast consumed two prime ministers, Boris Johnson's Conservative government was finally given a mandate to "get Brexit done" in the latest general election on Dec. 12.
The Conservative Party's victory is believed to have driven home a message -- the British are fed up with the seemingly endless Brexit.
But will it ever end at all?
There have already been warnings of more twists. Both Britain's former EU envoy Ivan Rogers and former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow have warned that getting the Brexit withdrawal agreement passed in parliament would just be "phase one."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (C) speaks at the House of Commons in London, Britain, on Dec. 20, 2019. (Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/Handout via Xinhua)
Brexit is set to haunt British politics for many years to come, either in terms of unpredictable trade talks with Brussels, or a continuing poisonous divide generated by the 2016 referendum, which saw the country virtually split down the middle between Leavers and Remainers.
Will Brexit be like the vampire in Bram Stoker's classic novel, 'Dracula', continuing to haunt when everyone thinks it's done?
As a matter of fact, Brexit does resemble a vampire: it was invited-in, it will never die, and it is life-sucking ... ■
