Ten years ago on Tuesday Britain voted to leave the European Union. The reaction in Brussels was somewhere between shock and bereavement.
One of Europe’s largest economies, a nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a country that had helped shape the continent for half a century had chosen to walk away.
Today, the mood is very different.
Shorts
The grief has faded. The anger has subsided. The emergency summits, all-night negotiations and mutual recriminations are long over. In their place is something more complex: a mixture of regret, exasperation and a growing conviction that Britain has become trapped in a debate the rest of Europe settled years ago.
