England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, whatever:
Norway without the fjords.
Switzerland without the Alps and the chocolate.
And, let’s be brutally honest, on its way to being Venezuela without the warm climate and the pitching prospects.
The U.K. has said p.u. to the E. U. and the results have been disastrous:
More than $2 trillion down the drain worldwide.
More than $830 billion lost in the United States.
A British economy shrunk from the fifth largest to the sixth.
The Labour and Tory Parties in chaos.
The capital of the European financial world already shifting from London to Frankfurt.
Russia chortling.
The French and the Germans, leaders of the European Union, demanding the U.K. exit sooner rather than later.
And the Scots and the Northern Irish looking to separate themselves from the U.K. to stay in the E.U.
All done within 24 hours.
Bravo, Britain.
Oh, did we mention stock portfolios and 401k plans tanking? Oh, what’s that you say: How can we selfishly weigh that against the sovereignty of the British people? What, our happiness doesn’t matter? And wasn’t England already a sovereign country? Doesn’t a sovereign country remain a sovereign country even in a group? Isn’t an individual still an individual even if he interacts with another culture? I like Chinese food. It doesn’t make me Chinese.
What’s that you say: Britain exiting the E.U. would stop the flow of immigrants to its lily-white shores and save 350 million pounds in E.U. tribute a week that would go to senior health care?
Oh, wait, the flow of immigrants would continue, because the U.K. would have to maintain open borders to have access to the E.U.’s single market? And the amount the U.K. sends the E.U. a week is really 190 million pounds? And besides, you can’t guarantee the money would go to health care?
Plus, the U.K. would have to renegotiate with the E.U. after its exit to claim a trade status similar to that of Norway or Switzerland?
So what, pray tell, was the point of leaving and risking your status as a player on the world stage? (That sucking sound you’re hearing is the air going out of the special U.S.-U.K. relationship.)
What’s that? You want a do-over? Sure, let the scathing British-born John Oliver tell you how that would go.
In other words – not. Asking the E.U. to forget what happened or even to give the U.K. time to prepare for its leave-taking is a bit like the husband who leaves his wife for another woman but asks the wife if he can stay in her house until his is built.
Not gonna happen.
The leave-taker is not in a position of strength since the one who is left knows there’s nothing left to lose.
Not understanding this may be the greatest delusion of all.