Rule Britannia

In another declaration of independence, Britain's still new prime minister, Theresa May, has held the line against those who would like to reduce her country to an appendage of Europe and its European Union. "Not partial membership [in] the European Union, associate membership of the European Union, or anything that leaves us half-in, half-out," she declares. "We do not seek to adopt a model already enjoyed by other countries. We do not seek to hold on to bits of membership as we leave. We want to buy your goods, sell you ours, trade with you as freely as possible, and work with one another to make sure we are all safer, more secure and more prosperous through continued friendship."

In other words, goodbye and good luck, Europe. Or as David Low's 1940 cartoon in the London Evening Standard put it when the British lion found herself isolated and in dire danger, "Very well, alone!"

Tim Bale, a British professor of politics, notes that there are arguments both pro and con when it comes to Britain's staying in Europe, even to an tenuous extent. "But," he says of the prime minister's decision to leave Europe to the Europeans and Britain well out of it, "if that's really what she's going to do, and it's not simply a negotiating stance on her part, it might be better to do it sooner rather than later." Like right now.

Editorial on 01/21/2017

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