On 19 June 2026, the front page of the Daily Express pronounced authoritatively: “10 years on, the majority of Britons back Brexit and oppose attempts to reverse it.” This is eminently false. As all polls show, most Britons now want to reverse the Brexit debacle. Yet mendacity has been one unmistakable hallmark of pro-Brexit rhetoric for over ten years.

The second hallmark is the astounding level of institutional illiteracy I first detected over ten years ago. Any warnings about the costs of dismantling the intricate institutional architecture that had been constructed since the UK joined the European Communities in 1973 drowned in the mindless media frenzy whipped up by Farage and Johnson.

But the deepest and most enduring legacy of the “Brexit process” is the damage done to the spirit of hopefulness associated with the prospect of pan-continental unification—a spirit above and beyond the dramatically increased effectiveness of production and trade, the freedom of movement, and the transactional calculus of benefits and losses. It is a spirit expressed in the intangible and delicate fabric woven by those who believe in a Europe of mutual understanding, respect, empathy, and cooperation. It is the spirit of a family that, in 2004, opened its arms to societies scarred by the experience of Soviet-style communism and, despite the difficulties of economic integration, signalled the possibility of a common, optimistic future.

Brexit, built on the rhetoric of lies and economic pseudo-analysis, sent the opposite signal: that a return to division and even hatred was possible. Right-wing populists of various hues have since been busy realizing this possibility. The undoing of Brexit would signal a return to a world of mutual respect and optimistic humanness. After all, it was a Brit who prodded us to “imagine” such a world.

Jan Kubik is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors, and not of the UCL European Institute, nor of UCL.