The first time COTTonLINE mentioned the U.K. leaving the EU apparently was in 2012. We have followed the U.K. polls that showed a narrow majority of Brits supported leaving the EU since perhaps 2014.
We covered the campaigning, the election, and the Brexit side winning. Then the hapless Theresa May trying with little success to have the form of Brexit without the substance. And the activities of Nigel Farage holding her feet to the fire. Eventually she resigned, Johnson was elected and then got a majority after ousting Remain Tories.
Not that it was any of our business, since we are external to the situation, but we’ve supported Brexit from the start. As Anglophiles, it has been our opinion that mainland Europe was following Angela Merkel in an unfortunate direction Brits didn’t need to take.
Tonight at 11 p.m. London time (midnight in Brussels), the United Kingdom will officially leave the European Union. Since the U.K. has remained outside both the euro zone and the Schengen zone, the break this evening will not be a dramatic one. Brits will continue to use the pound and control access to the country.
What remains to be learned over the next eleven months is the details of the “property settlement” coming out of this “divorce.” I don’t expect we will obsess over the minutia of the arrangements as we might if we carried a Brit or EU passport.
