Exactly two years ago, Britain told the European Union it would be breaking from the bloc on March 29, 2019. That’s today.
Instead, MP’s were still voting on Prime Minster Theresa May’s Brexit deal on Friday. The vote failed, and MP’s rejected May’s plan. That leaves the country with three options: a hard, no-deal crash out of the EU on April 12, a long extension agreement with the EU that might jeopardize Brexit entirely, or the seemingly long-shot possibility of MP’s reaching a new deal.
Britain, it turns out, still can’t quite decide what kind of relationship it wants.
This breakup is exactly the kind of drama that would find its way into a rambling country ballad about love and loss.
Britain leaves, only to come back and ask for a little longer to decide. Then it wants to quibble about the furniture, the kids, the house and the Netflix subscription. Only to realize that sorting out all of those details takes a lot longer and is much more complex that the initial impulse to up and leave.
And, as those conversations drag on, Britain, like an immature lover, is having second thoughts about what the whole break up means. Is it really stronger alone? Is its identity based on current reality or nostalgia for long-gone prowess? Maybe sharing that Amazon prime account was really a better deal.
But the EU set a deadline and now it’s time to pack up the boxes – or not. By now though, Britain has already spent so much time fighting about what to take and what to leave and, besides, it seems really attached to free trade and an open border with Ireland that reaching any decision seems impossible.
So on one ear, there’s the nagging feeling that Britain has to follow through, to some extent, with its promise to leave. On the other, there’s an increasing tug of the heart strings (and the pocket book) that seems to say it would be better to stay. And then there’s the totally unsatisfying option of a half-in, half-out “just friends” relationship that leaves everything uncertain. After Friday’s vote, that’s exactly where Britain is.
Normally, that’s the point where you go to the bar, get a stiff drink and have your friends take the phone lest you try to call your once and maybe partner. Of course, that doesn’t work when with the relationship is with the EU. Instead, the MP’s just have to duke it out in Parliament between now and April 12.
No matter which way Parliament goes, the Brexit drama is clearly far from over – just like the messy brake up that quitting the EU always was.
