A glimpse of things to come

Brexit Secretary David Davis is calling on the EU to compromise in negotiations with the UK over the divorce settlement and on a future trade deal. He overlooks a couple of significant points when doing this. Firstly, the UK has taken the decision to leave. It was not the EU asking for this. It wasn't the UK and EU mutually coming to a decision that matters would be better if the UK leaves the organisation. It was a simple, straightforward decision by the UK that the UK was no longer to be a member of the club. Decisions have consequences and as we have voted to leave the club and no longer be subject to the club's rules, that has consequences for us. None of this was a decision of the EU so the onus on compromise falls on the UK if we want to enjoy some of the benefits of club membership without being a member ourselves.

Secondly, the world has moved to one in which smaller nations join together into political and economic associations to open up trade and regulate their economies while providing institutions which allow for solutions to outstanding issues to be addressed peacefully, rather than by war or threat of war, which tended to be the way of doing business before 1945. The EU is the most advanced of these international organisations and it gives the nations of Europe a stronger negotiating position in the world. Brexit removes us from the structure that has given us beneficial trade deals with over 40 other countries, deals which the individual nations of the EU, including the UK, would probably not have been able to negotiate in their own right.

The EU has built itself up to a position of major influence not just in Europe but throughout the world. It is the world's biggest market and the 3rd largest population. As a relatively small nation, the UK is not on the same level. The EU is a superpower compared to the middle-ranking UK. The EU has all the best cards and the UK has little to put into this game of international poker. We can bluff as much as we like but the EU doesn't have to compromise as it holds all the aces. The UK put itself in that position so we can't complain.

The uncompromising position of the EU is a glimpse of the future for Brexit Britain. We will no longer be able to magnify our power as a nation through the EU. We will be dealing with international organisations and nations such as the USA and China which are vastly more powerful than we are. They will hold all the best cards. And we will be bobbing along as an offshore island in the wake of the EU. For a country with a great history, this is a sorry state of affairs.