BREXIT and Article 50

“It is so hard to leave—until you leave.
And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”

John Green, Paper Towns

Eight months after the UK voted narrowly to leave the EU, Theresa May will trigger Article 50 - the formal process by which a country leaves the EU - this week.  The intervening 7 or 8 months have been a period of phony war, during which the UK's negotiating stance has gradually become clearer and the EU's position has oscillated between threat and pragmatism.

A serious politician for serious times.

As I read about the EU's half-hearted 60th anniversary celebrations in Rome and noted for the first time the absence of a British Prime Minister, I felt a palpable sense of sadness.  That things should have come to this pass is unfortunate (though not a 'tragedy' Mr Juncker) and the situation is certainly now unrecoverable.  The die is cast.

Perhaps a British point of view.

Miscalculations on both sides led to BREXIT.  Cameron fatally overestimated the extent the EU would accept British proposals for reform, and the EU and Merkel especially, displayed a level of obduracy and refusal to embrace the kind of reforms that would have accommodated the UK's concerns.  This intransigence made people like me vote to leave.

Némésis britannique?

It is clear that in the intervening months Britain has not "collapsed: politically, monetarily, constitutionally and economically" as Mark Rutte claimed it had; the rupture between Remainers and BREXITEERS has begun to heal, and even more Scots than in 2014 want to remain part of the UK.  In short, the world has not stopped spinning.  The UK, whether it wanted to or not, is now engaged in a process of national renewal.

A bit rich coming from Der Speigel.

No doubt the next 2 years will be difficult and I do not underestimate the EU's ability to act irrationally in attempting to punish the UK for leaving.  The assertion, held by many in the EU, that things must be seen to be better in the EU than out, is frankly not much of an advertisement for staying.