NEWS ANALYSIS
Britain’s tortured relationship with Europe has just darkened
May’s deal has fallen at the third attempt and she is running out of options to deliver on Brexit, but whatever happens now, a breach with the continent is already evident
There was a moment, in the middle of March, when Europe finally tuned in to Brexit. It was not due to sudden economic concerns, but rather a morbid fascination at the spectacle unfolding in the UK. Tales of stockpiling, emergency ferries and shortages of blood were one thing, but the paralysis in Westminster in the face of such an obvious impending crisis was incomprehensible to many Europeans. Unprompted, shop workers, baristas and taxi drivers asked what was going on. How could this happen, in Britain of all places? German news magazine Der Spiegel captured the mood in its morning briefing for March 12, the day Prime Minister Theresa May put her revised deal to a parliamentary vote for the second time. “It’s painful having to watch this great European nation inflicting wounds on itself,” wrote political editor Sebastian Fischer. “It’s so unnecessary.” May’s deal has now fallen at the third attempt, and the prime minister is running out of options to deliver on Brexit. But whatever...
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