Why let a good party go to waste when the population is starving and freezing in their own homes?
Brexit was an incredibly divisive vote in 2016 to separate the United Kingdom from the European Union that split the country, family, and friends right down the middle. There can be no denying the societal impact it created that reverberated around the world.
Those in support of it wanted to be free of the oppressive yoke of the European Union, wanted to eliminate the bureaucracy foisted on the country by unelected bureaucrats in the EU. They were told by Leave politicians and campaigners that they needed to take back their sovereignty, that the country needed to be in control of its money, its borders, and its laws.
Those who wanted to remain in the EU were accused of not being patriotic enough, of not believing in Britain, of fearmongering when the realities of leaving were pointed out. But they were more concerned about what the country was going to lose, how their freedom to travel was going to be curtailed, and how red tape was going to swamp businesses that were accustomed to seamless, just-in-time exportation to the European Union.
Wounds were cut deep then, that are still trying to heal now.
In 2018, the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced that there was going to be a national celebration to mark the newfound freedom that the Uk had achieved by holding a festival to showcase the benefits of Brexit.
There were objections from various factions, concerned about the message it was sending and the cost to the taxpayers. Those concerns were ignored and it received the final stamp of approval from the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in 2019 when he won a majority in the House of Commons.
The Festival of Brexit was scheduled to begin in March 2022 and conclude in October of the same year.
The price tag for the seven-month-long celebration was £120m, and that equated to about £17m a month, £4m a week.
The vision for The Festival was to show the diversity, creativity, and innovation of the newly liberated United Kingdom.
First, £3m was allocated for anyone wishing to participate in The Festival. There were 300 applications vying for inclusion, whittled down to 30 candidates after a vetting process, with each team being awarded £100,000 to develop and present their ideas for The Festival of Brexit.
From the 30 shortlisted submissions, 10 were eventually commissioned in February 2021 and were awarded further funding to complete their projects. Showcasing diversity, innovation and creativity were the objectives, and the final projects were as diverse as:
- Growing cubes, a sustainable method of growing food in urban areas
*An event to discuss the future of the country, in Welsh and English
*Converting an unused North Sea offshore oil rig so it can be viewed by the public
*A Pokemon Go style story of 15 towns and cities across the country
*Art exhibitions and poetry anthologies.
Since that decision was made a few earth-shattering events have occurred. The Covid 19 pandemic descended on the world, Brexit was more or less fully implemented in January 2021, and the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out.
All of these events brought astronomical costs and lost revenue to the country, all running into the billions, with money donated, with money spent, with money wasted. Regardless, plans for The Festival of Brexit proceeded unabated.
Nothing could derail the preparations, and the rising cost of living didn’t sway the government in the slightest. It seemed irrelevant to them that food banks were being swamped by thousands of people, both in and out of work, who couldn’t afford to pay the rising energy costs and pay for food at the same time. For millions of people in the UK, it was a simple choice of eating or heating.
Pensioners on fixed incomes were even worse off. To save money on heating, many of them opted to ride around all day on the buses using their free passes in an effort to keep warm. In this way, the money they saved on heating their homes during the day could be spent on food. For a country as great as Great Britain, it was a sad state of affairs.
When interviewed about the unbelievable conditions the elderly were enduring, the Prime minister, Boris Johnson, smiled, feeling proud of himself for being the one who had introduced the free bus pass for them.
It was a lie, as under his tenure as the Mayor of London he had merely extended the usage times of the bus pass which were previously more restricted.
So, instead of using that £120m to subsidize the heating for the elderly, he was happy that they had the opportunity to ride around all day free on the buses rather than be warm in the comfort of their own homes.
Instead of using that money to make sure children didn’t go hungry, his government was adamant that everything went ahead accordingly, that the country needed a celebration to lift up their spirits.
But with one significant change.
With more bureaucratic paperwork and more barriers to trade than ever before, it was harder to paper over the cracks that were beginning to appear in Johnson’s Brexit ideology. He and his accomplices had claimed that there would be no drawbacks to leaving the European Union, no downsides, and only upsides.
And so, since no quantifiable benefits of Brexit could be seen, felt, or spent, it was decided that the title of The Festival of Brexit was not exactly appropriate. What was there to celebrate? Sovereignty was not keeping pensioners warm in their own homes nor putting food on the tables for millions of people.
The name was quickly changed to Unboxed: Creativity in the UK.
The price tag stayed the same, however, £120m of public money deemed reasonable to waste when millions were having to decide between eating and heating.
So, with no fanfare, with not one headline in any newspaper in the country, with not one mention on any news station, Unboxed: Creativity in the UK, launched its seven-month festival in March 2022, all literary traces of Brexit erased.
Initially, the idea of The Festival of Brexit was to emulate the success of the Festival of Britain in 1951. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to repeat that successful celebration as there are no benefits of Brexit that one person, in government, on the streets, or in a nuthouse, can point to and claim that it is improving the lives of even one member of the public.
To spend £120m on a party to celebrate an event at a time when there is a cost-of-living crisis rampaging through Great Britain is irresponsible, a colossal waste of public funds that in no way, shape or form, was going to be value for money.
Brexit is a bust. The Festival of Brexit now known as Unboxed is a failure.
What is the point of having a party when there is nothing to celebrate?