In the political cacophony reverberating across Europe and the larger economic horizon, what may have been forgotten is that today’s most paraded term took from a concept or an idea that never materialised. The term Brexit followed Grexit — a politically and economically charged term that framed the narrative when Greece was staring at bankruptcy and most lenders had written off the south European nation as a lost case.
Today, the idea that Britain is going to be out of the vaunted European Union seen as a success story by many and a requiem of the failed European Project by others, has crystallised. And so has the idea that the exit of the second largest economy from the bloc is going to leave a messy trail in its aftermath. The signals are clear.
The European Parliament has been debating the terms of Brexit with a tenacity unrivalled by any other subject in the House that often pulls different ways.
The island nation of Britain has been a part of the European Union in a way that can be called an adjustment rather than integration. Split from mainland Europe by the English Channel in the south and North Sea in the East, the United Kingdom has always straddled a divide which is hard to bridge. Even political integration has been hard to achieve with Britain’s colonial legacy leaving an imprint on modern times. The royalty, firmly rooted in the Buckingham Palace, makes the nation’s political legacy a tad different from other European nations. Could such differences have led to efforts to take the nation away from an European superstate?
The debate on Berxit has included a fumbling 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Theresa May in the throes of a narrow election victory. Weakened by the act of just scraping pass the electoral mire; and chastised by her own party and berated by an emboldened opposition, the embattled British premier tried to win over the Tories by an inspiring speech, which was disastrously punctuated by a coughing fit.
May’s Foreign Minister Boris Johnson has been hit by a fusillade of criticism for his ambitious agenda as London flits between a hard and soft Brexit.
The European Union, a giant entity with a lumbering bureaucracy and a varied geography, may not have been suitable for integrating Britain and its political system. However, London now faces the difficult task of yanking itself out of a system that is loathe to leave it but reluctant to keep it. Now, it is for May to make Brexit as smooth as possible.
