Free Republic

As the Big Ben gong struck 11 p.m. GMT on January 31, marking the moment the United Kingdom left the European Union, thousands of people started singing “Rule Britannia” in Parliament Square. Next to the statue of Winston Churchill was a British Army Parachute Regiment flag—apt, given that the EU is German-dominated—and a few large American flags.Churchill was half American, and Americans in London clearly love a good independence party. A world where British people are free to vote and kick out their representatives might be hard in the days to come, but it is far, far better than...

Marine Le Pen, the president of the French populist right-wing party Rassemblement National (National Rally), congratulated the United Kingdom for regaining its “freedom” but went on to say that Brexit was a “terrifying failure” for the European Union. “After multiple twist and turns, the UK has finally regained its freedom. But this is a terrifying failure for the EU”, said Ms Le Pen. “We will no doubt see, over the coming months and years, that the UK did the right thing and will probably benefit a great deal. In fact, I have already noticed that the disaster-mongering has already given...

Britain officially leaves the EU tonight at 2300 GMT (6pm EST / 3pm PST). Live coverage from the UK's Sky News.

I didn't see an "Official" BREXIT Thread, so here it is...

Searching for analogues to explain this sudden preoccupation with national sovereignty, our intelligentsia have reached about as far back in history as our culture still seems able to remember, to the clash of Great Powers in the First World War and the clash of civilizations in the Second. But to understand the motivations driving the tectonic realignment of our politics today, and the long-awaited Brexit that now seems set to rapidly become reality, we must look a bit further back—to the original Brexit that helped birth what Yoram Hazony has called “the Protestant construction of the West” and the order...