Stakes are high for UK, EU as Brexit's second chapter begins

IN 1942, after the UK victory against German forces in Alamein, Winston Churchill famously asserted about the pathway of the Second World War that "this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning".

Some 75 years later, with the United Kingdom soon set to trigger Article 50, setting off formal exit negotiations with the EU, Churchill's timeless words summarise neatly where the nation has come to in the Brexit process. Since June's referendum, there has been much international attention on sometimes heated intra-UK debates about leaving the EU, and it is already clear that the ballot will probably be the single most important moment in the current Parliament, defining Prime Minister Theresa May's government.

Yet, the real negotiating action has yet to begin. And when it soon does, attention will shift from UK internal discussions over Brexit.