"I mean, everybody must have been aware for decades at that point that the UK didn't have the resources to do imperial power politics." Yeah, absolutely true,

"I mean, everybody must have been aware for decades at that point that the UK didn't have the resources to do imperial power politics." Yeah, absolutely true, but just to make sure the U.K. rubbed the fact home with such style and panache that no one could ever forget the fact (comparatively speaking it was much bigger than Brexit—perhaps the U.K. forgot it was no longer a superpower and that international opinion now actually mattered (in that it could no longer get away with such arrogance as it did in the days of empire). What other possible reason could there be? Mind you, the U.K. was not alone, it was egged on and encouraged by its cohorts France and Israel.