As Britain’s time in the EU draws to a close, it has to decide to leave without a deal or not leave at all

The problem with “yes” and “no” questions is that they leave out the greys, the “but” that almost every single one of us uses to qualify our statements. And when you give voters a stark “yes” and “no” choice and build up both positions with hyperbole and loose facts alongside a media storm, they can make some very poor decisions in the moment. And that is what seems to have happened in the United Kingdom when that nation voted by a narrow margin to leave the European Union which allowed the term ‘Brexit’ to enter the lexicon. The Brexiteers, those who wanted to leave the Union, rightly surmised that an appeal to Britain’s “glorious” past, when it ruled half the world, would appeal to those in the areas left behind by the success of London and its suburbs. The problem is that many elements of that “glorious” past, which voters were led to believe would rush to make trade deals with Britain, did not want those deals, India being the biggest case in point. With the process of getting a British tourist visa for an Indian being unnecessarily complicated and expensive for Indians, let alone work permits, the Modi government, quite rightly, rejected British advances. And the same happened across the world, including self-described deal maker extraordinaire Donald Trump.

But if it was only about trade deals, the British have tried and failed to strike a divorce deal with the EU. Simply put, the Brexiteers believed that they could keep the house, the car, the pets and the children and the EU would let them. But divorce does not work that way in the real world as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos can testify. The EU was quite correct in telling the British that the East India Company style of deal-making does not happen anymore and stood united. The British unfortunately, to this day, are still drunk on the legacy of their colonial past, a past that celebrates difficult figures such as Winston Churchill. The world has moved on and so has Europe. Britain is not “great” anymore, no matter what the British advertising campaign tries to sell. It is a small yet still influential cog in the global economy. But this is not the mid-1800s and this small cog will become even smaller and less important, particularly if it leaves without a deal. Maybe it is time to consider the unthinkable for British politicians, now that their voting public have seen the truth. Maybe it is time to give them another say. If they still want to leave in chaos, so be it. But the British public and their politicians have to appreciate that the good times are over. For good.