It is dangerous to assume the past is superior to the present. After going back through all the crises since the end of the Second World War, however, I cannot find a time when Britain was so out of options and so out of luck. By “options”, I don’t mean escape routes liberal readers of the Observer would welcome, just alternatives that seemed plausible at the time.
Suez? Get the troops out of Egypt. Union militancy? Thatcher. The degradation of the public realm? New Labour. The crash of 2008? Austerity. There was always an escape, however unpalatable. Now, to steal William Hague’s description of the eurozone crisis, Brexit Britain is a burning building with no exits. The alarms ring but no rescuers come.
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