The Brexit negotiations and the May government

Abstract

In an apocryphal statement - later explained as a translation misunderstanding - Chinese leader Zhou Enlai famously answered a question about the effects of the French Revolution of 1789 by saying that it was too soon to tell. By the same token, it is definitely too early to form a final judgment about Brexit, the process whereby the United Kingdom (UK) is seeking to leave the European Union (EU). When this special issue was going to press at the end of summer 2019, the UK had not yet exited the EU, 38 months after the UK citizens had voted in a referendum to leave, and 29 months after the UK had notified its intention to do so under Article 50 of the Treaty on EU (TEU).