If you’ve seen the Disney movie Encanto, set in the magical mountains of Colombia, you’ll know there is one song that sticks in your mind. Part of the film’s storyline concerns a missing character, Bruno. For reasons not immediately known to the viewer, his family sing “We don’t talk about Bruno”, and you get the feeling it’s because Bruno has done something very bad.
When you say you are not talking about something, you are – paradoxically – already talking about it. It is an example of being “in denial”, defined by psychologists as choosing to deny reality as a way to avoid uncomfortable truths. Britain has been in denial for years about the uncomfortable truths of Brexit. Like the family in Encanto, the shadow of the thing which we deny leaves us singing that we don’t talk about Brexit, while all the time Brexit and its seriously negative consequences are everywhere.
Last Saturday, I drove to a festival in southern England. My route took me along the beautiful coastal road between Dover and Folkestone. The sea was blue, the cliffs gloriously white in the sunshine, the French coastline clear in the distance.
On this glorious English coast you can often see re-conditioned Spitfire planes from the Second World War, practising manoeuvres for aviation shows. But there is also a less lovely sight, the enormous queues of lorries trying to get to Dover. As I passed, they blocked the inside lane of the opposite carriageway, directed by police in small groups to the port. Folkestone is eight miles from Dover, and the queue of trucks took up most of the length of that road.
Meanwhile, according to the Daily Express newspaper, Bristol airport was “like a zoo” from early morning as passengers struggled to get on their planes. Manchester, Heathrow, Gatwick and other airports endure similar problems. Passengers have been advised to take only hand luggage as a result of staff shortages.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, says that the travel chaos was “self-inflicted from the government” and down to “Brexit plus Covid”, and so post-Brexit immigration rules should be relaxed to allow EU workers to come back to the UK.
Britain has been in denial for years about the uncomfortable truths of Brexit
It is true that some other European airports have also had problems re-hiring key workers too, notably Schiphol in the Netherlands. But suddenly the British taboo that “we don’t talk about Brexit” as the source of our many problems has been broken again and again. In the past week, the British National Farmers’ Union, along with environmentalists and health campaigners, has also become involved. They have publicly, and in separate ways, told the government that their new post-Brexit food policy is disappointing and vacuous. In its 2022 annual report the House of Commons Committee on Food and Rural Affairs (chaired by a Conservative MP) noted that post-Brexit problems are causing “crops to go unharvested and left to rot in the field, healthy pigs to be culled and disruption to the food supply chain” as a result of“acute labour shortages”.
There are half a million vacancies for farm workers in the UK, mainly as a result of Brexit and also the coronavirus epidemic. And then there’s Northern Ireland and the British government’s attempts to break the Brexit agreement Boris Johnson signed just a couple of years ago –although that’s a complex subject for another day.
The key point is that Britain’s years of not talking about Brexit have ended. And it’s not the big things – all that hollow posturing about “sovereignty” or Northern Ireland. It is the little things of daily life that cut through. The queues of lorries and passengers at airports; the crops rotting in the fields; increases in the price of European wines and other goods; extra costs and bureaucracy for importers and exporters; the falling pound; GDP facing a cut of 4 per cent; and a loss of respect for the UK abroad. And all the while “Brexit benefits” are as common as rainbow coloured unicorns.
The Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood now suggests Britain should rejoin the EU single market. That was once heresy. The Conservative Brexit campaigner Daniel Hannan – to the astonishment of some – suggests that since the government has missed the “opportunities” of Brexit (whatever they are supposed to be), then clearly “we should have stayed in the single market”. Bizarrely, he adds, however, that “rejoining it now would be madness”.
With even prominent Brexit advocates now at least implicitly admitting Brexit is a disaster, two things are clear. First, Brexit is not the cause of all of Britain’s woes, but it has made the country poorer, weaker and more divided, and has produced no noticeable benefits for any ordinary British citizen. Second, “not talking about Brexit” is pointless, self-defeating and illogical. Brexit reality is – and always was – a badly thought-out exercise in British self-harm conducted by an ambitious prime minister who had no real idea what Brexit might mean in reality. But, to rewrite the song, we “don’t talk about Boris”, do we? Although, just like Bruno, and just like Brexit, we will be talking about him again before long.
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Company%20profile
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Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra
Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa
Rating: 4/5
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Third Test
Day 3, stumps
India 443-7 (d) & 54-5 (27 ov)
Australia 151
India lead by 346 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Canada
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh1,100,000 (est)
Engine 5.2-litre V10
Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch
Power 630bhp @ 8,000rpm
Torque 600Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 15.7L / 100km (est)
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
GROUPS
Group Gustavo Kuerten
Novak Djokovic (x1)
Alexander Zverev (x3)
Marin Cilic (x5)
John Isner (x8)
Group Lleyton Hewitt
Roger Federer (x2)
Kevin Anderson (x4)
Dominic Thiem (x6)
Kei Nishikori (x7)
UAE%20SQUAD
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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SECRET%20INVASION
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The years Ramadan fell in May
if you go
The flights
The closest international airport to the TMB trail is Geneva (just over an hour’s drive from the French ski town of Chamonix where most people start and end the walk). Direct flights from the UAE to Geneva are available with Etihad and Emirates from about Dh2,790 including taxes.
The trek
The Tour du Mont Blanc takes about 10 to 14 days to complete if walked in its entirety, but by using the services of a tour operator such as Raw Travel, a shorter “highlights” version allows you to complete the best of the route in a week, from Dh6,750 per person. The trails are blocked by snow from about late October to early May. Most people walk in July and August, but be warned that trails are often uncomfortably busy at this time and it can be very hot. The prime months are June and September.
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Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
Concrete and Gold
Foo Fighters
RCA records
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
ANDROID%20VERSION%20NAMES%2C%20IN%20ORDER
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years