At the Stroke of Brexit, Britain Steps, Guardedly, Into a New Dawn.

[elleng]

'On a rainy evening of dampened festivities, its epoch-making departure stirred hopes and fears, but also relief that the ordeal is finally over.

To the recorded peals of Big Ben and the gentle fluttering of Union Jacks, Britain bade farewell to the European Union at 11 p.m. on Friday, severing ties to the world’s largest trading bloc after nearly half a century and embarking on an uncertain future as a midsize economy off the coast of Europe.

For Britain, having transitioned in the postwar era from a globe-girdling empire to a reluctant member of the European project, it was yet another epoch-making departure.

It is a departure that will upend settled relations in virtually all areas of society, the economy and security matters, while confronting Britain with new questions of national identity. Three and a half years after the former prime minister, Theresa May, proclaimed that “Brexit means Brexit,” the British government will finally have to decide precisely what that means.

Britain must still negotiate its future trade relations with the European Union, a thorny process that could take through the end of the year, or longer.

On Friday, the departure elicited both hope and trepidation from Britons. Many simply were relieved that the bitter and divisive debate over Brexit is over.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/brexit-britain-leaves-EU.html?

[BigmanPigman]

1. It has been interesting watching the timing of US and British

politics over the last 4 years. Many parallels. Sad day for our countries but a great day for Putin.

[Skittles]

4. it feels like both countries are going backwards

and yes, Putin is the winner

[DavidDvorkin]

2. A cold, bleak "dawn" without a sun.

[LessAspin]

3. Giscard d'Estaing "see ya, wouldn't want to be ya."

Link to tweet

[LeftishBrit]

5. What an ALMIGHTY mess

And this was voted in by 52% of voters and only 50% of constituent countries. I don't think any other country, even referendum-happy Switzerland, would accept a constitutional amendment on the basis of only 50% of states/provinces/cantons. I am terrified, both of the likely economic damage, and the validation that it gives to a certain element in society that believe that they have 'won' the right to stomp on minorities, both in the sense of ethnic and racial minorities and of what, in what we once thought of as less fortunate and free countries, are called political dissidents: 'Subverting democracy', 'Seeking to defy the will of the people' or just 'Traitors'. I am not saying that most Leave voters have these attitudes, but that the Leave vote has emboldened those who do.