Politicians are still worried about using the ‘B’ word. Jeremy Hunt, when confronted with facts about the decline in trade and other trade-offs, refused to attribute any of them to Brexit – even though he had supported remain. Why is Brexit ‘the elephant in the room’? 

Now seems the perfect time to blow away this political manoeuvring. That’s why Byline TV is producing the definitive Brexit documentary with Dr Mike Galsworthy and over 3,000 people have supported its crowdfunder to raise the £95,000 production budget.

Galsworthy – who is the founder of ‘Scientists for EU’ – says the documentary will be an opportunity to look at the facts not the political posturing and break through the conspiracy of silence on Brexit from both the Government and Opposition. 

“It is crucial to put the facts on record as politicians have obscured the truth at every turn, in a determined attempt to blame the current economic problems only on COVID or the Ukrainian invasion,” he says. “Often blatantly, like Suella Braverman brazenly saying the OBR was wrong about the impacts of Brexit. Now years later, we can look at the data dispassionately and weigh up the true impact of Brexit with the help of leading economists.”

The documentary will search for the origins of Brexit and chart how Europe moved from being a low priority for voters to the overwhelming issue. As a definitive record, it will look at both sides of the argument and the campaigns by each side. It will find the answers to the question about why David Cameron felt compelled to call a referendum and whether he did so to save his party or his country. The reasons why people voted the way they did will be analysed, as well as what they were voting for. How did the soft Brexit that so many wanted, turn so hard?

Another pressing question is: who made money out of Brexit? What of those hedge funders who cleaned up on referendum night with £100 millions of profits? The documentary will look at their links with the Government: 65% of Boris Johnson’s party election funds came from hedge funds and city investors, not to mention their connections with Liz Truss’ ill-fated administration or  Kwasi Kwarteng’s drinks with financiers on the day of his infamous mini budget statement.

The Leave and Remain campaigns will be reviewed, measuring their claims versus what has unfolded. More sinisterly, Russian interference and the involvement of Cambridge Analytica will be revealed along with the implications for democracy. Key figures that were involved in this assault on the democratic process will be interviewed and new insights recorded.

The documentary will reveal how the toxic effect of the Government’s frantic efforts to invoke Article 50 exposed the vulnerability of our unwritten constitution, leading to experts and judges being vilified by the Daily Mail, and how Johnson’s attempt to make the Queen prorogue Parliament was finally stopped by the Supreme Court and ‘girly swot’ Lady Hale.

But don’t think this is just a documentary about politics and politicians – Byline TV has already produced a series of popular mini-documentaries giving voice to ordinary people whose lives have been seriously affected by Brexit, from fishermen and farmers to lorry drivers. We will scour the country to find the story beyond the politics and talk to people who voted for and against leaving and follow their fortunes afterwards.

We are keen to talk to politicians, commentators and people in Europe to find out how Brexit has been viewed from their perspective, to understand how it has affected our relationship with them, and its impacts on Europe.

The last section of the documentary will consider the options and the likely scenarios for the future. What will the future consequences be for the Union and Britain’s place in the world? Will ‘Global Britain’ be anything other than a political invention?

Production of the documentary starts this week and it will be available at Byline TV at byline.tv/join.

Please become a subscriber below, if you haven’t done so already, and then post your questions to Dr Mike Galsworthy in the comment section below, which he will answer from 2PM today.