May and Churchill

Theresa May is many things – an illusory ultra-sovereigntist, for her determination to have Britain leave the EU.

A turncoat – during the Brexit referendum, she fought in the Remainer camp.

Dogged in the Churchillian sense is more like it. With one crucial difference: Against very long odds, Churchill delivered on his promise to defeat the Nazis and thus free not just Britain from oppression, but the Western half of the European continent.

In contrast, Theresa May’s odds for “delivering a successful Brexit,” as she puts it, are impossible.

Why? Because the logic of European integration runs counter to the most (in)famous, long-term maxim of British imperial politics – to get something meaningful and substantive in exchange for nothing.