David Cameron: Britain's EU Referendum to be held June 23

Theresa May is now the Prime Minister of the UK.

Several cabinet appointments have been made. A couple of eyebrow raisers so far: Boris Johnson is the new Foreign Secretary (think Secretary of State here in the US) and current Chancellor (Secretary of the Treasury) George Osborne has been sacked, which was not expected.

 

David Davis named Brexit Minister in Theresa May's new Cabinet

British Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed David Davis, a former junior foreign minister and strong Brexit advocate, to lead the country's negotiations for exiting the European Union, her office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Davis, a senior Conservative lawmaker who was beaten by former prime minister David Cameron in the party's 2005 leadership election contest, was appointed to the newly-created role of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.

He will take on the crucial role of securing Britain's economic security whilst unpicking over four decades of trade, legal and diplomatic ties to the EU.

At the heart of the job will be finding an answer to the key negotiating question: how can Britain keep access to the EU's single market whilst winning the right to restrict free movement of workers from within the EU?

"Once the European nations realise that we are not going to budge on control of our borders, they will want to talk, in their own interest," he said on Monday in an article for Conservative grassroots website Conservative Home.

Davis also said Britain should take its time before triggering the formal Article 50 exit process, but could be ready to do so by the start of 2017.

"The negotiating strategy has to be properly designed, and there is some serious consultation to be done first," he said. "This whole process should be completed to allow triggering of Article 50 before or by the beginning of next year."

 

EU Commission President Jean Claude Junker, perhaps the most acerbic voice in the EU government against the UK's decision to exit the EU, is now admitting that the economic consequences are only short term and within a couple of years the international ramifications will be over with.

So it appears that the Armageddon/wailing and gashing of teeth phase of this exercise may be drawing to a close now three weeks after the referendum. Too bad most people will quickly forget the fear-mongering and the blatant fear-based manipulation tactics that Junker and the rest of the "Remainers" used during this campaign.

 

Why should individual countries like the UK be in the EU at all, you mean.

Ten years from now, the people of the UK will very likely look back on this decision as a no-brainer and there will be broad agreement that the UK is better off out of the EU. If that turns out to be the case, then for the UK there is no good reason for them to continue to belong to the EU.

Perhaps the circumstances of other members of the EU are such that for them it makes more sense for their to continue to be an EU and for those countries to be a member of it. Or then again, maybe not. There is already a lot of discussion about this subject in many of the individual countries of the EU in the aftermath of this referendum.

 

The UK is not staying in the single market. Prime Minister May has already stated that it is a top priority is to limit immigration into the UK, while Angela Merkel and various top EU officials have stated that if the UK wants to be a member of the single market, they will not be permitted to cherry-pick which parts they want to adhere to.


Theresa May will stop migrant crisis: New PM vows she will end free movement from EU
Theresa May will make a strict new limit on immigration her top demand in her push for an EU exit deal, the Daily Express has learned.


Angela Merkel: no special favours for UK over single market
German chancellor rejects Boris Johnson’s proposal to give Britain access to single market with limited immigration


So, there will have to be a new trade agreement between the UK and the EU, unless the EU stands down, which I do not expect that they will do on the free movement issue. The UK will not be a member of the single market after they exit the EU.

 

Theresa May has scrapped the UK's Climate Change ministry. If only we had such bold and decisive leaders here.