- ‘What did the Romans ever do for me..?’ - 28th July 2026
- It’s all Greek to me - 27th July 2026
- Counting the cost… - 24th July 2026
Incredibly even the day after the resignation of Sir Keir Starmer, one UK newspaper which has been a particular cheerleader for Brexit, led on the referendum’s 10th anniversary when all other papers splashed on the Prime Minister quitting, showing the power of leaving the EU – which has been a huge economic disaster, but a benefit for puffins off the Welsh coast.
Media commentators like our Editor. Welshman Phil Parry have been left open-mouthed by this decision, when the Daily Express offered only a nod towards Sir Keir falling on his sword, but an enormous picture of the white cliffs of Dover.
Emblazoned on this picture (as an ‘EXPRESS CRUSADE’) was the headline: “GIVE US A PROPER BREXIT”.
Phil, who has been a journalist for 42 years. declared: “This is extraordinary, and makes you think what needs to happen for the Express NOT to lead on Brexit.
“They have obviously tried to get out of it by calling it a ‘Brexit anniversary and PM resigns special’, but that’s not enough!”.
Meanwhile the effects of Brexit (both good and bad) are now becoming clear, and polls indicate that if the referendum were held today there would be a big majority for staying in.
Economists try to quantify the economic damage from leaving the EU.
Some say Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person is eight per cent lower than it could have been; others say 2.5 per cent, and it is certainly a fact that growth in most other G7 rich economies has been faster.
There has also been greater paperwork and difficulties for individual businesses.
For example, Dominic Gardner, who runs a road-repair business in Sunderland, finds it harder now to import parts, and to him the paperwork is “phenomenally frustrating”.
Brexit, though, has presented benefits, and puffins in Wales are feeling them.
Danish fishermen’s pursuit of sand eels, the seabirds’ favourite food, has been blamed for dwindling puffin numbers.
The EU prevents member states from imposing unilateral fishing bans.
Free from such strictures, Britain has sided with the puffins over the Danes—outlawing the harvesting of sand eels in British waters. Record numbers of puffins have been reported on Skomer island this year.
There are other advantages, too, which may go unremarked.
On the mainland, liberalised rules on gene-edited crops (heavily regulated by Brussels) allow farmers to benefit from seeds which are engineered to withstand the UK’s changing weather.
Therefore now the UK is outside the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), incentives can be tweaked, meaning that hedgerows (and the wildlife they support) are flourishing: 1,800 km of them have been planted since 2023.
So Brexit hasn’t been ALL bad news – just don’t expect the Daily Express to lead on puffins and hedges…
The memories of Phil’s remarkable decades long award-winning career in journalism (which included major political events), as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
