It is easy to forget in retrospect, but the Brexit referendum was not conceived as an in-out choice on UK membership in the EU “as is.” Nor was it merely a means to extract minor concessions. London operated from the hubristic assumption that Britain could change the EU’s course. While the euro countries continued on their path toward deeper integration, Britain would force Brussels to formally recognize not just a multispeed but a multidirectional model. The UK was not heading more slowly to ever closer union. If the Tories had their way, it was not heading there at all. Brussels needed to be
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