Brexit and 'British' success at the US Open
Britain is celebrating Emma Raducanu’s stunning success as “the first British woman to win a singles grand slam since Virginia Wade in 1977”.
That’s good. In fact, that’s great. But think about this.
Had we left the European Union right round the time Romania-born, Canada-based Ian Raducanu was moving his family from Canada to the UK, would there have been a “British” success at the US Open?
In other words, would Mr Raducanu brought his wife Renee and two-year-old Emma over to Britain? And would they have stayed?
Considering the numbers of Europeans who left the UK after Brexit, voluntarily or because they had no choice, it’s not inconceivable that a 2005 Brexit might have either kept the Raducanus away or forced them to leave the south of England.
It’s worth thinking about the way Britain was until the June 2016 Brexit referendum — a place where …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to This Week, Those Books to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.