'Hard Brexit' - a painful but inevitable choice for the UK

"BREXIT means Brexit," British Prime Minister Theresa May had famously said, soon after she took on the job last July.

For several months, pundits pondered what exactly she meant - how clean would the break be? What would be retained and what relinquished? What model, if any, would the UK follow in its new relationship with the European Union (EU)?

Mrs May herself had dithered on these questions. But now, at last, we know. Yesterday, in the most important speech since becoming Prime Minister - excerpts of which were released in advance to the media - Mrs May revealed the clearest blueprint we have seen yet of what the UK plans to do. In short, it will be what is described as a "hard Brexit". As Mrs May indicated, it will not be "half-in, half-out" as many in the business community were hoping. There will be no associate or partial membership of the EU or some other half-way arrangement a la Norway, Switzerland or Iceland. The UK will make a complete break. It is prepared to lose its privileged access to the EU market. It will no longer be subject to EU regulations, at least in its domestic market. Nor will it be bound by the decisions of the European Court of Justice. It will not p…