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The UK is not regaining independence, it was never lost. I think it is naive to assume that in the current political climate with huge actors (US/China/Russia/

• dudul 8y ago
  They are regaining full autonomy and won't need to comply with directives coming from Brussels if you prefer. There are plenty of countries way smaller than the UK that do just fine on their own, and don't feel the need to merge with their neighbors. There are pros and cons to forming alliances with other nations, but 1) they don't need to be as involved and permanent as the EU, 2) they don't need to be primarily based on geography.
  • pjc50 8y ago
    As various people have pointed out, as a matter of realpolitic the UK will have very little choice in complying with most directives because the alternative of maintaining two markets or not shipping to the EU are infeasible. The requirement of not having a hard border in Ireland which the UK has already conceded means that Northern Ireland will almost certainly have to follow EU directives. e.g. https://medium.com/@gordonguthrie/no-deal-wont-happen-e185f9b0185 https://medium.com/@gordonguthrie/no-deal-wont-happen-e185f9... Realistically the options are "disaster Brexit" (fail to make other trade arrangements, lose NI and Gibraltar, huge airline losses, shutdown of nuclear reactors run by EDF, etc) or "pointless Brexit" (everything remains roughly the same, except the UK loses its vote)