John Fund of National Review Online ponders the outcome of the Brexit battle.
[T]here were also two elections that had to be waged and won for Brexit to become reality. One was the actual referendum in 2016, and the other was last December’s general election, in which Boris Johnson won a landslide mandate to bring in Brexit. …
… Despite the celebratory mood among Brexit enthusiasts last Friday, many acknowledged that much work remains to be done. A new free-trade agreement will have to be concluded between Britain and the EU before year’s end, and a bilateral pact between the U.S. and Britain will no doubt see President Trump drive a hard bargain. Andrew Roberts recently told the Wall Street Journal that he worries that his friend Boris will pursue politics that include “high social spending and intervention in the economy” in order to hold the Labour-party strongholds captured by surprise by the Conservatives in the last election.
But for now, Britain has a chance for a fresh start and, as Roberts put it to me, the opportunity to escape “the bloated, sclerotic beast” the EU had become and to forge a new relationship with India, China, and the U.S. “The irony is, Brexit supporters were criticized as ‘Little Englanders’ these last few years,” Roberts says, “But in the next few years, we’re going to prove we are truly international in outlook and actually ‘Great Britons.’”
