You know I'm not surprised that Britain wants to leave the EU. It may not be them, probably the will of the United States. You see the E.U. would become the most powerful entity in the world second only to China, and the U.S. would be demoted to third or fourth. You see, Britain owes America billions of dollars after America bailed them out during their economic crisis when John Major was prime minister, so they may not have had a choice but to leave. Don't know how this one is going to play out coz' Scotland wants to stay with the EU. Troubled days are ahead.
The end of the Brexit
beginning is here. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May
officially sent the European Union her country’s divorce papers, thus
beginning the formal process of unmooring the United Kingdom from the
European Union. Britain’s surprise decision to leave
the EU during a referendum in June, 2016 rattled the EU to its core.
After nearly seven decades of forging the continent’s institutional
unity, it finally showed signs of cracking. It has also presented both Brussels
and London with a sharp legal and political headache. The EU has over
40,000 EU regulations, 15,000 EU court verdicts, and 60,000
international standards that Britain will somehow have to entangle
itself from, on issues ranging from immigration to healthcare to
commerce to foreign policy to trade — one of the most important issues
given Britain’s reliance on the Eurozone market. And they’ll be negotiating against the
clock: Brussels and London have two years from Wednesday’s formal
notification to sort out their divorce based on the so-called exit
clause of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon. If they don’t reach a final
agreement on Britain’s withdrawal terms, all EU rules will suddenly no
longer apply to Britain. This could pit the country in political and
financial uncertainty. Some British lawmakers fear
they won’t be able to meet the deadline. The EU can extend
negotiations, but only if all 27 members agree, which isn’t guaranteed.
(But don’t worry, chief Brexiteer Nigel Farage said he’d just leave Britain if the Brexit he orchestrated is a disaster, so at least he’ll be okay.) The UK’s ambassador to the EU, Tim
Barrow, had the distinctly awkward honors of handing May’s official
Brexit letter to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels
Wednesday:
May struck a “let’s still be friends” tone in the letter.
“We are leaving the European Union, but we are not leaving Europe — and
we want to remain committed partners and allies to our friends across
the continent,” she wrote. She followed the letter with a speech
before parliament, taking on a resolved tone to compensate for the sea
of uncertainty she’s mired in. “Today the government acts on the
democratic will of the British people,” May said in a speech to
Parliament after Barrow handed in her letter. “This is an historic
moment from which there can be no turning back. Britain is leaving the
European Union,” she said.
But while the United Kingdom breaks from the EU, it’s grappling to
keep its own kingdom united. On Tuesday, Scotland demanded a new
referendum on independence from London once the terms of Brexit became
clearer. The British government rejected Scotland’s bid. In Brussels, the initial shock of the June, 2016 Brexit referendum wore off well before Wednesday. As one Politico Europestory puts it: “the mood in the European capital has largely shifted to ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out.’” But Tusk was clearly still hurt.
“There is no reason to pretend that this is a happy day, neither in
Brussels, nor in London. After all, most Europeans, including almost
half the British voters wish that we would stay together, not drift
apart. As for me I will not pretend that I am happy today,” he said. “What can I add? We already miss you,” he said.
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