Like so much in the ill-starred effort to drag the UK out of the European Union, “Get Brexit Done” has turned out to be a simple slogan that’s much harder to execute in reality.
But it will get done — somehow. And the terms are ultimately going to be up to Boris Johnson and the UK side: the EU has far more at stake in this matter than the EU does. There’s some sort of future for the UK outside of the EU, but there might not be much of a future for the EU if it caves to the UK.
It will almost certainly come down to the wire, and to Boris Johnson’s understanding of what’s actually negotiable here. My guess: as in the long-ago constitutional crisis, Johnson will play this out to the 11th hour, bow to reality at the last possible second, and declare he’s delivered a triumph.
Colin Steele 