Let’s suppose that the European Union always acted in its rational self-interest. (I know, I know, but humor me.) How would it respond to Britain’s decision to leave?

The first thing that a logical Eurocrat would note is that the majority for Brexit was slight. It would have taken only one voter in 50 to switch sides for the result to have gone the other way. Our Eurocrat might ruefully reflect that, had he and his colleagues shown a little more flexibility when David Cameron sought better terms, the outcome would have been different.