EU27 confident Brexit is a British problem

Rome

THE speech by British Prime Minister Theresa May in Florence, Italy on Friday could improve the fortunes of the UK's negotiations on exiting the European Union (EU). Observers will inevitably see it in the context of the ultra-simplistic views of how Brexit might succeed by two Conservatives - Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Nigel Lawson, chancellor of the exchequer from 1983 to 1989 - that make startling reading.

Mr Johnson set out in The Daily Telegraph on Sept 16 a vision of a "glorious future". A sovereign country will be finally rid of the EU's statist shackles. It will choose what it wants from existing laws and regulations and will not have to pay a "divorce bill". The wide prairies of free trade will liberate it from the obligations of a "vassal state".