Brexit and King Canute
PM Theresa May should get the Anglo-Saxon king's message right and not think Britain can succeed outside of the EU just because the people voted for it.
Add BT as a preferred source
THE legend of King Canute describes how an early Anglo-Saxon king showed his subjects the limits of royal power. King Canute set his throne by the sea and commanded the rising tide to turn back. When the sea rose as usual and soaked him, he told his courtiers: "Now let all men know how empty is the power of kings."
British Prime Minister Theresa May, whose motto is "Brexit means Brexit", seems to believe that King Canute's message was about democracy, not astronomy: he should have held a referendum. Though Mrs May opposed the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, she now has a new mantra: "We will make Brexit a success because people voted for it."
This is nonsense. If Britain becomes the only European country apart from Russia to exclude itself from the EU single market, it will not succeed economically, regardless of how people vote. Democracy would not have prevented the ocean tides, driven by gravity, from drowning King Canute if he had stayed on his throne, and a referendum will not turn back the economic tides driven by globalisation.
