I've long worked in retail but also know quite a few who work in the care sector, education and hospitality (including some who own their own small businesses) and "thriving" is, sadly, certainly not the word I would use to describe service industries around my area Ketts. Unless you refer to the raft of job vacancies on offer for part time/ low paid care workers or delivery drivers for the likes of Evri or Amazon or else the continuing growth of the gig economy exploited by Deliveroo etc.

(Btw, Aziz Ansari's "Good Fortune" with Seth Rogan and Keanu Reeves (as an inept angel) does a pretty good job of pointing out the exploitative nature of the gig economy in the US while cloaking it in comedy. A kind of mash up of "Its a Wonderful Life" and "Trading Places" with a touch of Travolta's "Michael", it's message applies to the UK too)

As for Brexit, despite the continuing gain-saying and nay-saying from both sides, I find it difficult to accept that anyone can legitimately argue that the country has benefited from it. I'm sure that I have also read somewhere that whilst populist pressure led Cameron to agree to having the referendum, even he had his doubts about Brexit and at the time of announcing this back in 2013, he personally still hoped -and thought -that it would be ultimately rejected. By the time of the actual vote in 2016, of course, the rhetoric around it had magnified greatly.

The EU certainly wasn't perfect but I have always personally felt that it would have been better to push harder for change from within rather than to leave it entirely, especially with all the uncertainties that entailed. Ultimately, for myself, I felt the positives of remaining in the EU outweighed the negatives.

The UK is no longer a great power on the international stage and history has shown that "splendid isolation" didn't work for us even when we did have that power. The world has changed and no country can afford not to forge both economic or military ties with others.