'No Turning Back' on Brexit as Article 50 Triggered (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a BBC report: Britain's departure from the European Union is "an historic moment from which there can be no turning back," Theresa May has told MPs. The prime minister said it was a "unique opportunity" to "shape a brighter future" for the UK. She was speaking after Britain's EU ambassador formally triggered the two year countdown to the UK's exit by handing over a letter in Brussels. It follows June's referendum which resulted in a vote to leave the EU. In a statement in the Commons, the prime minister said: "Today the government acts on the democratic will of the British people and it acts too on the clear and convincing position of this House." She added: "The Article 50 process is now under way and in accordance with the wishes of the British people the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union."

Comments

So long

[houghi]

and thanks for all the fish and chips.

But perhaps they could change place with Canada. Europe gets Canada and Northern America gets the UK.

Re:Tradeoffs

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Look at some of the people who are happy with this outcome:
- UKIP, of course.
- Donald Trump
- Marine Le Pen
- Vladimir Putin

Simple minded populists, right-wing nationalists and the enemies of the West.

Is this what the UK stands for these days?

Re:Tradeoffs

[Anonymous Coward]

and how many wars between European countries were there in that 1000 years? How many since the EU?

Re:A completely unaccountable governing body

[WrongMonkey]

Effective democracy requires that constituents have common interests and the right to secede is necessary component. Let's say you have group of 5 co-workers that always vote on where to go to lunch. If four of those coworkers are vegetarians and one is not, then meat-eater's only choice is to accept always being outvoted or to leave the group entirely.

After Brexit, Scotland will reconsider if they still enough common interests to remain in the UK. If the West Midlands or Greater Manchester wish to do the same, that's their prerogative, too.

This whole concept of Nationalism and Nation-States is only a 19th century experiment and it doesn't seem to working out well in a lot of cases. It might turn out that the most stable expression of democracy is something that resembles the loosely allied city-states of ancient Greece.

Re:Europe is the one that should be scared.

[Luthair]

UK is losing free access to a market 6x their domestic, and won't be the financial market for Europe. Hard to see how that won't result in a slowed economy and they'll certainly have less political influence as they can no longer affect EU policies.

Re:Europe is the one that should be scared.

[Glasswire]

And they're gaining much freer and better access to the markets of... Canada...

Ironically, Canada just concluded CETA a free trade agreement with the EU and so Brexited UK will have no more than normal WTO trade status with Canada (which is what they'll start with after Brexit for all of those other nations you called out until they can negotiate some other agreements).
But had the UK stayed in EU, they would have had a premium trade arrangement with Canada they won't get now.
Even though Canada's head of state resides in UK. How is that for ironic?

UK vs Great Britain geography

[Daetrin]

As long as you're going to tell people to get educated about the differences between the terms, here are some CGP Grey videos about the subject:

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

The (Secret) City of London, Part 1: History

The (Secret) City of London, Part 2: Government

And here's one about the whole Brexit thing itself, though it's from just after the vote so is now somewhat out of date, though the speculation about what the results might be "if" it goes through are presumably still relevant.

Brexit, Briefly

.

The results of any election or referendum....

[mark-t]

... have nothing to do with "the wishes of the people". It is simply the outcome of the vote, and where voting is not mandatory, may reflect a disproportionately large representation of one particular view that is not actually held by the majority. Further, at most in only reflects how one person may have felt at the time that they voted, and may not reflect an informed decision they could be in a better position to determine at a later time.

While it is doubtless true that most voters that voted on the Brexit referendum did indeed vote to leave the EU, I am pretty sure that it is not what most people in Britain actually wanted. Calling it the "will of the people" is just balderdash. It is simply the outcome of the democratic process in this instance, nothing more and nothing less.

Re:Tradeoffs

[Roger W Moore]

This glosses over the reality of having your economy fall that far.

It's not just the economy falling though - if Scotland and Northern Ireland leave that too will shrink things, making the UK a smaller market and less interesting to the world.

Re:Europe is the one that should be scared.

[AmiMoJo]

France has a better nuclear deterrent than the UK. It also has a better navy, since the UK is going to be without an aircraft carrier for many years.

The EU can look after itself.