White Flags, Fishy Deals & Convenient Distractions: Has Starmer Just Undone Brexit While We’re All Looking the Other Way?
Starmer’s new EU deal revives free movement, rule-taking & the ECJ—while the media looks the other way. Has Brexit quietly been undone? If you were feeling a strange pang of déjà vu yesterday, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
It wasn’t just the groan of a fishing trawler or the thump of another EU regulation being dumped back on Britain’s doorstep.
No, it was the sound of Sir Keir Starmer hoisting the white flag over Downing Street, yet again.
On Monday, the Prime Minister inked what some are calling the softest, most submissive post-Brexit deal since the referendum.
But you wouldn’t know it judging by the BBC’s sudden interest in the “coincidental” twin releases of Tommy Robinson and Lucy Connolly, two of the most politically radioactive names in Britain.
Distraction politics? Never. But if it walks like a psyop and talks like a psyop…
The Brexit Betrayal. Served Cold and Covered in Sauce Hollandaise
We were told Brexit was done. Dusted. Oven-ready, even.
And yet, here we are in 2025, with the PM quietly tying us back into the EU’s orbit with a ribbon marked “alignment.”
Starmer’s “progressive” trade agreement has been billed by No10 as a £9 billion boost to the UK economy, though that figure won’t materialise until 2040, if ever.
But what has materialised immediately is a gut-punch to every voter who backed Leave and believed the promises of taking back control.
Let’s start with the stinkiest bit: fishing.
Under Boris Johnson, the UK clawed back 25% of our waters. It was a start.
But under Starmer’s new terms, the EU gets to carry on gobbling up 75% of Britain’s fish until 2038, a whopping 12-year extension.
That’s not compromise. That’s capitulation with tartar sauce.
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation called it a “horror show.”
Nigel Farage, never one to mince words, said it was “the end of the fishing industry.”
When even hardened Labour Leave voters in Grimsby are sharpening their gaff hooks, you know something’s gone very wrong.
Freedom of Movement by the Back Door
It doesn’t stop at the boats.
Another little gem buried in the deal is the so-called “Youth Experience Scheme,” giving millions of under-30s from over two dozen EU countries the right to live, work, and study in the UK.
Capped? Maybe.
Time-limited? Possibly.
But clearly designed to slide us back toward the very free movement the country decisively voted to leave behind.
And let’s not forget the Erasmus programme.
Expensive, bloated, and symbolic of everything Brussels stands for.
Yet we’re now flirting with re-entry, at taxpayers’ expense, while students here still can’t afford rent.
If you’re still trying to find the “control” in all this, good luck.
Try using one of those fancy new EU e-Gates while you’re at it.
The Great British Rule-Taking Rebrand
What do you call a nation that agrees to follow foreign laws forever, without writing them?
Answer: a colony.
In return for having a slightly easier time exporting sausages and cheese to the continent, Britain will now be a permanent rule-taker on EU food and farming standards.
This includes future laws we won’t get to vote on, challenge, or veto.
We’re told this “dynamic alignment” will cut supermarket prices.
But anyone who believes that is likely still waiting for the “£350m a week for the NHS” cheque.
Meanwhile, any hopes of post-Brexit innovation in areas like gene-edited crops, an industry that could have added billions to our economy, have been tossed aside like a warm pasty in Calais customs.
The European Court Returns… Again
Perhaps the most insulting returnee of all is the European Court of Justice.
Yes, under this deal, the ECJ will again have final say on disputes.
It’s like we never left.
For those who thought Brexit meant restoring sovereignty, this is the equivalent of asking the referee who sent you off to come manage your next home game.
The Defence Deal: A Gateway to the EU Army?
Then there’s the Security and Defence Partnership, which sounds like a harmless PR puff until you read the fine print.
The UK will now help EU countries access a £125 billion arms fund—and possibly contribute to it too.
Talk is swirling about British firms like BAE Systems getting access to lucrative contracts, but at what cost?
Critics fear this could be a Trojan horse for UK involvement in EU military operations.
One day it’s logistics; the next, your son’s in a European uniform saluting a blue-and-gold flag.
The slope isn’t just slippery, it’s greased with the finest Brussels olive oil.
Meanwhile… Look Over There! Tommy and Lucy Are Out!
Just when you might expect a wall-to-wall media bonanza covering this enormous political U-turn, what’s trending?
Not the EU deal.
No, we’re all being nudged to argue over Tommy Robinson’s four-month early release and Lucy Connolly’s failed appeal.
Let’s be clear: both cases are undeniably newsworthy.
But why now?
Robinson has been sitting in HMP Woodhill since October.
So why, of all days, is his release timed for the morning after Starmer signs away Britain’s sovereignty to Brussels?
Coincidence or classic political misdirection?
Connolly, meanwhile, is hardly an unknown quantity.
Her racially inflammatory post was indefensible.
But is the media’s sudden reinterest in her appeal failure designed to whip up a “look at these dangerous voices on the Right” narrative just in time to drown out questions about Britain’s latest EU surrender?
It feels coordinated.
Too tidy.
Too convenient.
The Stuff We’re Not Being Told
Here’s the killer question: what else is in this deal that hasn’t been disclosed?
We’ve been drip-fed the big-ticket headlines, fish, food, and free movement, but government documents on EU negotiations are notoriously dense, and the devil is always buried on page 417.
What about digital standards?
What about AI regulation?
What about data sharing and financial services?
And let’s not forget Northern Ireland, still the ticking time bomb of Brexit.
So far, there’s been no serious scrutiny in Parliament, and Starmer is moving fast, likely to avoid giving the Tory opposition, or the public, a real chance to push back.
Closing Thought: Starmer’s EU Love-In Has a Price Tag
Sir Keir once said he wanted to “make Brexit work.”
Instead, he’s making it irrelevant.
And while the PM grins and flashes spreadsheets of theoretical 2040 windfalls, ordinary Britons are watching their industries get hollowed out, their votes ignored, and their future bartered away.
If this is “stability,” then it’s the kind where you’re nailed to the floor while someone else rearranges the furniture.
What happens next?
Don’t expect the truth from the BBCs 10 o’clock news.
But keep an eye on Brussels, on your border, and most of all on the back pages of every deal they don’t want you to read.
Because when Britain’s back is turned, someone’s always reaching for the pen.
Well, that’s all for now. But until our next article, please stay tuned, stay informed, but most of all stay safe, and I’ll see you then.