Le Brexit : liberté ou tragédie ?

The Brexit referendum vote of June 2016 has unleashed powerful, new political and economic forces in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). Why and how did this happen? The British people were never told the truth about the EU ? neither its raison d'être as an international political organization to build lasting peace on the continent of Europe nor the benefits of close European cooperation in an interconnected, multi-polar world based on legally binding treaties. Euroscepticism in the UK, built up over forty years, was left unchallenged by generations of politicians and stoked up, relentlessly, by a hostile and aggressive British press. There is no evidence whatsoever that the UK has prospered outside the EU, on the contrary politically and economically it has regressed. It has become more untrustworthy, economically unstable and less influential internationally. European integration, however, has advanced in some significant ways since the UK has departed from the EU, but the EU has also lost some important British assets and qualities. Brexit: liberty or tragedy? A costly tragedy for the British people that will last generations. JEL Classification: N14, N24, N44, O52, P05, P16.