Sunak wants to save himself from Brexit with a little Europeanism

The United Kingdom is trying to get out of the ideological pincers of Brexit and at least partially heal the wounds inflicted not only on its economy, but to the whole country, because the national-populist whipping helped to corrupt and roll back what Hegel had called “the spirit of a people”. It is an effort that must be accompanied and appreciated, as the International Monetary Fund has done by revising its estimates upwards. “The sole function of economic forecasts is to make astrology seem respectable”, John Kenneth Galbraith was fond of saying, so let us also take the IMF with a grain of salt which in the space of a few months completely changed its mind about the UK economy: in January it saw a recession of 0.6 per cent, 0.3 per cent in March and now it sees growth on the horizon at the end of the year: for now only 0.4 per cent, but if it continues like this in 2024 it will reach one percentage point. The plus sign has opened champagne in Downing Street. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt abandoned any British aplomb (confirming that it is a commonplace): “We are stronger than Germany, France and Italy,” he said. His jubilation is exaggerated, even if understandable, the pragmatism he has demonstrated together with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is giving good results: they have thrown away ideological harshness à la Nigel Farage who now also declares himself repentant, the aquilonari follies at Boris Johnson, the unusual infatuations to Liz Truss and have rolled up their sleeves to fix public finances, tame inflation, restore confidence. It’s early to tell if they succeeded, however they brought a breath of fresh air under the banner of reason. Although to be realistic to the core, they should recognize that it will take time to remove the rubble.