Nine years ago, in the heart of French wine country, a group of friends gathered for what was supposed to be a week of simple pleasures.
The rural district of Les Marronniers is the kind of place where time moves differently. Vineyards stretch toward the horizon, stone farmhouses hold centuries of stories, and the air carries the scent of earth and aging oak. It was there, in our friend Helena Eversole’s typically French farmhouse, that far-flung friends reunited for a week of wine, dining, and reminiscence.
But as dusk settled each evening and bottles of local Bordeaux were uncorked, our conversations drifted from shared memories to the question of Brexit.
The Leave campaign had promised something seductive: “Take back control.” For millions, that slogan spoke to unease about where the globalized world was headed—tighter borders, reclaimed sovereignty. For others, Brexit meant a transformed Britain: a “Singapore-on-Thames,” a deregulated, low-tax competitor ready to strike trade deals with the wider world.
Around Helena’s table, lively discussions went late into the night. One saw liberation. Others warned of isolation and economic self-harm. “We’ll be free,” one friend insisted. “Free to make ourselves poorer?” another countered. Neither could predict just how right—and how wrong—they would both turn out to be.
A decade on, the data tells a sobering story. Published economic research estimate that Brexit reduced Britain’s GDP by upto 8% by 2025 and a 15% drop in trade. As The Economist argued, “Brexit lingers like a toxin in the economy’s bloodstream”
The promised Singapore never materialized. Britain under Thatcher had prospered by shaping free trade rules. But now, as the world fragments into competing blocs, Britain has “fallen through the cracks.” When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, another cost emerged: British defense firms have been largely shut out of the EU’s rearmament programme. Brexit’s cost was never just economic.
Harder to measure is the cost of what Britain didn’t do—years consumed by revolving-door leadership and endless debate over how to leave. Meanwhile, public sentiment has soured. The share of Britons who say Brexit is worse than expected has nearly doubled.
Yet Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, now leads national polls, eroding Labour and Conservative dominance. Brexit continues to define voting lines, with Reform appealing to older, less-educated voters driven by cultural anxiety.
The lesson of the past decade is that there are no clean exits and no clean returns. Reversal is unrealistic. Some advocate a Swiss-style arrangement—a patchwork of treaties to align with the EU on trade, science, and security. Britain would become a rule-taker rather than a rule-maker. Imperfect, but perhaps necessary.
I think back to Les Marronniers—the long dinners, the clinking glasses, the discussions stretching late into the night. None of us sensed that the world was shifting. Old certainties were crumbling. And Britain had chosen to walk away from its nearest neighbors.
Helena’s farmhouse had stood for centuries. It had seen France and Britain fight, and it had seen them reconcile. As we sat there in 2017, we wondered what the future held.
A decade on, the question remains. But the debate has shifted. It is no longer about whether Brexit was right or wrong. It is about what comes next—for Britain and for the millions who will live with the consequences for years to come.
The vineyards endure. The wine still pours at Helena’s Les Marronniers farmhouse and the conversations continue.
Pasifika Talanoa by a traveled ITaukei Fijian 