Families stockpiling blankets to ward off the cold as they sit shivering in their homes with no heating; lines of people who cannot afford to feed their children forming at local food banks; empty supermarket shelves, and shortages of basic foods such as eggs and potatoes. The situation in the United Kingdom today recalls the hard times Charles Dickens described in his novels.

The above scenes from the town of Penrith are described in an article published in Foreign Policy magazine written by a UK journalist based in Ukraine. In a damning indictment of Brexit and the UK's bad governance, she says that life is easier and more comfortable (missiles aside) in Ukraine.

Adding to people's woes in the UK, the worst strikes in decades have closed schools, crippled train networks and are due to cause disruption at airports and ports. As many as 475,000 union members are on strike, demanding pay rises that do more to address the cost-of-living crisis. Many were given salary increases of less than 5 percent last year, while inflation climbed above 10 percent.

The International Monetary Fund said it had downgraded its forecast for the UK economy because of its high energy prices, rising mortgage costs and increased taxes, as well as persistent worker shortages. The IMF said the UK economy will contract by 0.6 percent in 2023, rather than grow slightly as previously predicted.

The UK is expected to be the only country to shrink this year across all the advanced and emerging economies. Even the sanctions-hit Russian economy is now forecast to grow this year.

Brexit has cost the UK a staggering 33 billion pounds ($39.8 billion) in lost trade and investment, according to a study, which found that the economic damage is even worse than previously feared.

Research by the Centre for European Reform, shared with The Independent, shows that the UK economy is 5.5 percent smaller than it would have been had the country remained in the European Union.

Many people now on strike in the UK must have voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. They are now paying the price for the wrong choice they made.

Instead of seeing the new Golden Age that it was promised Brexit would bring them, for many in the UK it is the worst time of their lives. The UK is already the worst-performing advanced economy.

Brexit meant what was once the world's most powerful globalized empire voted to explicitly reduce global access to trade and talent. Since Brexit, immigration, exports and foreign investment have all declined.

Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for the UK. As the country has proved in this increasingly globalized world, unilateralism and protectionism are a dead end for any country.