The future after Brexit: an interview in Denmark
Talks2010sA short video interview recorded in Denmark, uploaded to Jonathan Simmel's YouTube channel as “Alan Thornett om fremtiden efter Brexit” (Alan Thornett on the future after Brexit). The interviewer introduces him in Danish, saying they disagree on Brexit itself; Alan answers in English. Parliament has voted to open the negotiations (8 February 2017) but Article 50 has not yet been triggered (29 March), which dates it to February or March 2017. Transcript made from a local speech recognition of the audio (faster-whisper, 10 Oct 2026), in English for Alan's answer and in Danish for the introduction, which is given here in English translation. Square brackets mark words supplied or not clearly heard.
A corrected transcript of the recording. The recording is the authority.
00:00 [The interviewer, in Danish, translated:] Hi. This is Alan Thornett. He is one of the leading English comrades on the question of the EU and the attitude to take to it, and he has been [here] for a couple of [days]. And even though we disagree deeply on precisely the Brexit question, he is certainly very well informed about what is going to happen now and in the future. [In English:] So, Alan, just to be clear, what is going to happen now? What is the plan of Theresa May with Brexit, and so on?
00:32 Alan Thornett: Well, it's a very good question, and it can't yet be fully answered. But what can be said is that it represents the biggest shift to the right in British politics since Margaret Thatcher was elected and defeated the Labour government in 1979, with all the consequences of that. It might even be a bigger shift to the right, but anyway, time will tell on that one. But the Theresa May government is a long way to the right of the David Cameron government.
01:09 We call it a partially UKIP-ised government. UKIP is the racist, nationalist UK Independence Party that has existed for the last ten years, mainly in order to advocate exit from the EU. And essentially the Theresa May government has adopted the politics of UKIP: not entirely, but mostly. And that takes the form of two things, really. One is the racist agenda. The most disastrous thing that has happened in the aftermath of Brexit is a huge increase in racism: more openly expressed racism, more state racism, and also a big increase in racial attacks on migrants living in Britain, in particular migrants from the EU, and Polish migrants in particular.
02:12 So it's a big shift to the right across the board. The new government contains new ministers from the Tory right and from the leading Brexit campaigners. A Brexit campaigner now heads the Department for Exiting the European Union. And the plans that they're putting forward for exit from the European Union are the most hard-line type of exit available.
02:46 The debate amongst those of us that lost the referendum: we advocate, and most of the left advocates, what we would call a soft Brexit. We accept that Britain's out, but we're trying to get it out on the least dangerous and [least] right-wing terms. Which means that we advocate, most on the left advocate, to stay in the single market, to stay in the common customs union, and to retain the movement of peoples within the single market.
03:23 The May government is totally opposed to that. They argue that the main mandate that they received from the referendum was a cut in immigration, and the only way that they can fulfil that mandate, which they are determined to do, is a total break from the EU and from the single market, and therefore from the movement of peoples within the single market. And so, either they can get concessions out of the EU, which is going to be impossible, [or] it means they will have to fall back, after two years, on WTO conditions: harsh WTO conditions of tariffs, tariff wars and everything else.
04:17 And the model that is clearly emerging is to establish Britain as an offshore tax haven from Europe, something like Singapore, but not with the standard of living of Singapore: with low taxation, low corporation tax, very low corporation tax, and very low labour regulation. In other words, new levels of exploitation, in order to compete with the rest of the world. So that is really the prospect that we have.
04:54 It has to be said that, although Parliament has voted to trigger the opening of negotiations, which it has to do, which is right, there is a very long way to go in this process. At the moment the Tory party is united, simply because Brexit is now going to happen. But the whole process is very dangerous to them, because the EU elites have not yet spoken on their terms, and when they offer their terms, the Tory party is going to be split on it, and the whole thing will open again. And if you ask me what the situation will be in two years' time, it's absolutely impossible to tell.
05:35 At the moment I am, and most of the left is, opposed to calling for a second referendum, because it's totally undemocratic, it's what the EU elites do, and we have to respect the outcome of the referendum. But who knows what can happen in two years' time, when the harsh realities of all this impact on the population as a whole? We just don't know. So that's the best I can summarise where we are at the present time.
06:03 [Interviewer:] Perfect. OK. Thank you.