Daily chart: Leaving the EU: How Britain got here and what comes next
TODAY, Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, will deliver a letter to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, to officially trigger Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon. That will start a two-year clock for the difficult negotiations over the terms of Britain’s divorce from the European Union. Once time runs out, Britain will likely leave the club—deal or no deal.For decades, Britons had told pollsters they were dissatisfied with the EU. And although Euroscepticism has been particularly high in recent years, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, most respondents tended to say they had not thought seriously about severing ties with the EU. As a result, British politicians did not devote much consideration to the idea either. The tide only began to turn once the UK Independence Party (UKIP), whose defining issue was separation from the EU, began to threaten support for the ruling Conservatives. In 2013 the Tories promised that if they won a majority at the next election, they would hold an in-out referendum on EU membership. That was enough to quell most conflicts within the party and quash UKIP’s surge. But a surprise majority victory in the 2015 general election forced David Cameron, then the prime minister, to deliver on his pledge. A divisive campaign on Britain’s ...