The notion that this has been a uniquely terrible year is now well established. A lot of famous people died (which has obviously never happened before in human history) and the failure of pollsters to identify the populist tsunami on the horizon meant that when the waves hit, in the form of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, there was astonishment and panic among those who had assumed neither outcome was possible.
The shock has induced at the year’s end something close to despair among the most despondent Remainers, whose warnings about the horrors of Brexit, the impossibility of negotiations and the general inability of Britain to do anything have taken on an almost millenarian tone in recent weeks. One does not need to be hopelessly Panglossian about Brexit to think that the gloom is wildly overdone. Of course Brexit will be challenging. Most things worth doing are.
It is worth it because Britain has chosen to be on the right side of history, at a moment when the pendulum is swinging away from the fixation on supranational solutions and diminishing the role of the nation state. Of course, there must be international co-operation, but all the UK has done in its eccentric, stubborn way is to choose the self-government favoured by countries such as the US, Australia, India, Canada, New Zealand and China.
In such circumstances, for those Britons who voted for Brexit — me included — hearing the EU referendum described as the nadir of a terrible year is baffling. With all due respect to friends who voted differently, for millions of us 2016 was terrific, precisely because Britain voted to leave the EU.
Not only was the referendum campaign, for all its shortcomings, a remarkable exercise in democracy, it also settled a question that has bedevilled British politics for almost a quarter of a century: our role in Europe. That the dispute over sovereignty was restricted until recently to the Conservative Party only demonstrates how detached the Labour Party in England has become from the concerns of its traditional voters on subjects such as control of borders and self-government.
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After such a long period of misalignment, there is the opportunity with Brexit for an overdue reconnection between the parties and their voters. There is a renewed interest in finding out what the voters really think. This could catch on.
There are plenty of other reasons to be encouraged by the referendum result and even moderately cheerful about the prospects. Already Brexit is having a positive impact and beginning a process of revival in our shrunken institutions. For decades parliament has been in decline. As it gave away sovereignty, and squandered authority in scandals, it came to be viewed with scepticism and even contempt. In the argument over the rights of parliament to decide on Article 50 — the so-called trigger that begins the countdown to departure from the EU — were the stirrings of an institution waking from a long slumber.
The Brexiteers who complained about the temerity of MPs such as Nick Clegg demanding full scrutiny and votes on such matters missed the point. To watch Mr Clegg, a former Liberal Democrat leader and pro-EU figure of long standing, be reborn as an arch-defender of the rights of parliament to decide its own destiny made for a heartwarming, not to say rather amusing, spectacle. Mr Clegg’s intervention on Article 50 demonstrated that in terms of bolstering the Commons Brexit is already working — and it hasn’t even happened yet.
“After the panic by nervous Nellies in the City this summer, the place has started to work out that the business won’t all be moving to Frankfurt, Dublin or Paris
Since then Mr Clegg has overextended himself, inevitably, in seeking to reverse the referendum result. We are told he is joined in this axis by Lord Mandelson and Tony Blair, forming a Brexiteer dream-team that after the Iraq war and financial crash is unlikely to command widespread support.
Meanwhile, the world beyond Europe is increasingly eager to connect with Britain. The Australian high commissioner explained at the weekend why the government in Canberra wants to reach a free trade agreement with the UK that it believes will be pretty straightforward.
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After the panic by nervous Nellies in the City this summer, the place has started to work out that the business won’t all be moving to Frankfurt, Dublin or Paris. Labour laws are draconian in France, and the other options are too small. There will be disruption — and some jobs will move — but a global hub such as London will thrive and survive, as it usually does.
There is the not inconsiderable problem of the negotiations to come, of course. The suspicion that a prickly No 10 is handling the situation poorly is confirmed by ministers whispering that effective decision-making on Brexit has all but ground to a halt, thanks to gridlock while departments wait in vain for decisions from Theresa May.
Those day-to-day difficulties do not diminish the worth of the brave decision taken by voters who knew exactly what they were doing. This year the British chose to leave the EU, a flawed organisation in deep trouble thanks to open borders and a currency it invented, against advice, impoverishing many millions in southern Europe. It cannot defend its borders and will not listen to warnings about its profound structural weaknesses. Leaving such a club, while offering to stay on friendly terms if at all possible, should be a cause for modest celebration not doom and gloom.
Merry Christmas, Happy Brexit.