Spiegel Online: Brexiteers Are Driving Britain Into a Wall

Great Britain faces a deadline in 13 months for reaching a deal to end European Union membership and retain some benefits. Hardliners pressure the British prime minister, dictating conditions for complete separation, or “a national reawakening, no matter the price,” writes Jörg Schindler for Germany’s Spiegel Online. “They seem to have forgotten that in the summer of 2016 the Brits only voted on whether the country should leave the EU, not how.” The hardline demands include leaving the common market and the customs unions and possibly ending the status for the more than 2 million non-British EU nationals working in the country. The country also has more than 1 million non-EU workers. The government suggests the EU workers may stay, but many might leave anyway if free movement on the continent is not assured. Agriculture, food processing and hotel and hospitality industries would be hit hard. Still, hardliners resist compromise, refusing to acknowledge that the EU trade bloc carries tremendous leverage and dismissing forecasts of economic damage. Instead, they argue that government reports are “always wrong.” – YaleGlobal