Everything has changed but nothing has changed. The UK’s EU membership, like Schrödinger’s cat, is both dead and alive. A Conservative prime minister is once again preparing to tour the chancelleries of Europe, vowing to get the best deal for Britain. But this time it is with the intention of leaving, rather than remaining.
Some of Theresa May’s European counterparts were slow to grasp this point. They sincerely believed that the referendum result would be ignored. May’s repeated insistence that “Brexit means Brexit” was designed to dispel this illusion.
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