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Last week marked a further drifting apart of the EU and the UK, albeit in a way that should gladden the heart of those who advocate transparency and accountability. In a move that was at least in part aimed against British regulations that have made London the 'libel capital of the world', the EU introduced legislation to limit Slapps, strategic lawsuits against public participation. Such cases are often brought by wealthy individuals or companies against journalists, media organisations and NGO's that publish stories and reports that are unfavourable to them. The lawsuits have a chilling effect on public debate and the ability of journalists to do their work. The proposed EU legislation specifically allows courts to ignore judgments from non-EU countries, i.e. the UK, where many of such cases are brought.

One has to hand it to Boris Johnson, at the time of writing still the UK's Prime Minister and if current form continues, also for years to come. Over the years, and this probably goes way back, he must have shrewdly built up a reserve of scandals and affairs that when needed can be called upon to divert attentions from more serious shortcomings in his management of the country. How else to explain the convenient and ongoing gifts of partygate and now poochgate just as his Brexit-provided political armour is starting to show chinks, the latest of which are the new queues of lorries for Dover.

The chickens have come home to roost. The West's more than three decades of self-absorbed indulgence in unbridled greed and increasingly petty self-interest that brought us the likes of Brexit, have now left it powerless to face the threat of authoritarian regimes that seek to encroach on it and subvert it. Because whoever thinks that Ukraine will be the end of it is sorely mistaken and whoever thinks that Brexit and other divide-and-rule-based projects have nothing to do with our current weakness, is even more misguided.

As Russia's war on Ukraine is well into its second month, we can start to make up the balance on the West's response. The good news? Ukraine is still standing. The bad news? Almost everything else, notwithstanding the self-congratulatory and complacent highlighting of the 'impressive' unity of NATO and the EU. That's a mighty low bar for impressive, given the urgency of the situation.

In politics there are no friends, only interests, to fudge and combine two hackneyed phrases on the subject. But what does that still mean in an era in which acting against our own interests is becoming the norm? From the 2007 financial crisis to Brexit, the handling of the corona pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inaction on climate change, the last couple of decades have been marked by startling acts of national and societal self-harm. The previous century started in a similar vein, and see what that got us.

What can democracies do to defend themselves against attacks on their very foundations? That should have been the question in a recent debate on an EU ban of Russian channels RT and Sputnik at a gathering in Amsterdam. The debate got stuck on questions of propaganda, misinformation and freedom of information rather than acknowledging that Russia is systematically aiming to undermine journalism itself, as it is doing with other pillars of democracy.

It's politics, stupid. It might serve UK and EU leaders well to paste that updated version of James Carville's supposed exhortation for the 1992 Clinton campaign around their offices at a time when security threats on its periphery proliferate.

A fish rots from the head down, and I'm not referring to the Scottish catch that cannot get into the EU these days, although I'm sure it applies as well. Rather, it's what the acting Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has in common with fellow right-wing enablers such as Boris Johnson and his Brexiteers, most of the US Republican leadership and a slew of other conservative political opportunists.

As we come to the close of the festive period for Leavers, also known as the Twelve Months of Brexit, it might be time to make up the balance of what joyous tidings this deliverance from EU-hegemony has brought the world. Unfortunately, the advent of baby Brexit came amidst a pox from on high, the dreaded corona pandemic, which has muddied the waters somewhat when looking at the economic and societal impact. But in the spirit of Boris Johnson's reign, which won't let corona get in the way of Christmas and of a party, let's blithely push on.

The whole Brexit debate? That's so five years ago, to speak with the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak. He was answering a question in a BBC-radio interview a day after presenting his autumn budget. The main takeaway for many news outlets was the quite staggering hit that the UK economy is liable to take because of Brexit, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which is funded by his own Treasury. At four per cent of GDP, Brexit is expected to be twice as harmful as the corona pandemic. With the relationship between the UK and the EU taking a nosedive over disputes on everything from Northern Ireland to fishing, that could even be optimistic.

A strange, through-the-looking-glass type of symmetry is at play in the EU as it slouches towards the end of 2021. It's a temporal symmetry on the one hand, with the end of this year very much starting to look like the end of last year in terms of new lockdowns and coronavirus restrictions. And there's a spatial symmetry, with crises spiralling out of control on both the bloc's eastern and western borders.

Electoral politics have moved once again centre stage in Europe over the past month, with Labour and Conservative party conferences in the UK and a historic election in Germany. France too is preparing for elections next year and elsewhere electoral calculations are also heavily shaping the agenda for the next couple of years. None of this promises to ease post-Brexit relations between the EU and the UK.

Despite disparate attempts in both Conservative and Labour circles to get 'beyond Brexit', last week's series of local and regional elections across the UK were all about Brexit, in one way or another. Brexit is both a sign of a political realignment that has been a long time coming and has exacerbated it. It will reverberate down the elections cycles, whether politicians and voters like it or not, just like the relationship with the EU plays a role in other European countries. Even outside the EU, Britain will still have to deal with it, as has become clear so far in Jersey, Northern Ireland and soon, possibly in Scotland, where the EU lure might play a role in a future independence referendum.

The five-year anniversary of the 2016 Brexit referendum naturally leads to many assessments of what it has meant for both the UK and the EU, thus far. It's hard though to assess the damage while the firestorm is still raging. Also, the losses caused by Brexit feel almost intangible. As a fervently anglophile European, someone whose cultural, if not always political and social, lodestar was located to the west of the continent, it's deeply disturbing that the UK has cut itself off from us to such a degree. It feels unnatural and disconcerting.

The main Brexit news of the past couple of weeks was no news at all. Reactions to the BBC interview with Vote Leave campaign architect Dominic Cummings focused on some supposedly shocking revelations about the toxic atmosphere inside Number 10 and, gasp, his admission that he had no clue whether Brexit was a good idea. What was largely overlooked, perhaps because it is indeed old news, were the brief glimpses into his right-wing, techno-libertarian and hence slightly unhinged political philosophy. Old news it may be but since he's not the only proponent of this extremist and essentially anti-democratic – under the guise of 'fixing' democracy – pseudo-ideology it goes to the heart of what we should all be vigilant about. The attempt to skew democracy for the benefit of a couple of tech-billionaires and their fellow travellers, as exemplified by Brexit and Trump, has only paused to catch its breath.