The idea that Brexit was ever about "isolationism" is one put about by its opponents. The people who actually campaigned for Brexit were almost universally free

The idea that Brexit was ever about "isolationism" is one put about by its opponents. The people who actually campaigned for Brexit were almost universally free trade lovers, with the uneasy coalition with the working classes being forged over a willingness to restrict immigration. It is actually the EU that promotes isolationism. Their policy of "join the EU or we'll make it hard to trade and work with us" is one that places mutual cooperation and free trade very low down the list, seeing these as levers to advance their political ideology more than things that are beneficial in and of themselves. Other countries that aren't attempting to absorb an entire continent into one government find ways to collaborate and trade easier just out of a belief that it's the best thing to do. Not Europe. > it's really just more blustering nationalist idiocy The EU is a nationalist project: it has its own borders, flag, government, laws, trade rules, taxes, even its own national anthem, so Brexit can't be "nationalist idiocy" unless you've not understood the fundamentally nation-oriented goal of the EU. It's just that the EU wants the nation in question to be called Europe and to be formed by abolishing the existing nations. Whether or not the people who live in them actually want that, is not seen as very relevant.