The Guardian view on Brexit trade talks: to diverge or not to diverge | Editorial

Britain's departure from the EU should be a glitch in world trade arrangements, and not the new normal

Boris Johnson got not one but two wins last year on Brexit: a fresh withdrawal agreement with the European Union and an election victory that gave him an 80-seat majority in parliament. But while these events matter quite a bit for Mr Johnson and his political future, they did not make much of an impact on the British economy. Mr Johnson's premiership rests on the nostalgia of Brexit; its true believers think they were better off in an imagined past, before Britain joined the European Community. They will keep backing the prime minister because he says that the trappings of that past can be restored, even without any economic benefit.

That explains why a big part of the story of Brexit is about fishing, farming and factories. Before the UK joined the common market, manufacturing employed about a third of the workforce. That figure has now shrunk to less than a tenth. Farmers and fishermen, who voted enthusiastically for Brexit, make up a tiny proportion of national income - 0.6% and less than 0.1% respectively. Almost all of the rest of us are working in the service sector - which takes in everything from law firms and media companies to cabs and hairdressing. Work has become more precarious, but disposable income, in real terms, is roughly double what it was before we entered Europe.