"Do you want to know what punishment for leaving a union really is? You should maybe ask the south and the confederates how their secession went down."

How repulsively arrogant.

But thank you, have just very loudly and clearly proven my point for me.

FYI - the EU has had as a strategy since day one to make Brexit impossible. It would be very easy to work out some kind of trade agreement with the UK.

The EU has a priority to make Brexit impossible because once nations are successfully able to secede from the EU and 'get along rather well' - then other nations will want to do so as well. The obvious question then arises: why does it exist in the first place?

The EEC is something that almost everyone wants/wanted. The political union is something that very few actually want.

...

"You mean like a QUEEN?"

The UK is a Constitutional Monarchy, and 'The Queen' does not make laws.

Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, Luxembourg (from whence Junker comes) - among others, all members of the EU (save Norway, though almost) are have Constitutional Monarchies ... which begs the question: 'What is your point?'

The European Commission is the only executive layer of Government in the Western world that is not elected. It was designed on purpose this way, so that they would't have to deal with populist initiatives, or pay attention in any way to democratic movement.

The current Commission President, Jean-Claude Junker, after the French populations rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon said: "If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue’"

The totalitarian arrogance on full display; they're indicating that they will essentially move forward with their plan, irrespective of what people want. This is why they dropped the plan to have referendums in the remaining EU countries: because the Treaty of Lisbon would have never prevailed.

All of this is fundamentally anti-democratic and is one of the root causes of tension within the EU.

The EU will continue to wither in lock-block crises: UK relationship, Italy banks on the brink, Greece in 'broken mode', periphery in misery with massive unemployment, East Europe in 'authoritarian mode', everyone arguing about migration, France 'broken' and no longer a balancing partner to Germany, and Germany reaping the rewards of a currency which suits them and nobody else - all of these existential issues will continue in perpetuity until there is fundamental change, either through popular revolt, or a change in operating paradigms.

The political landscape in Europe has fully turned upside down, with Eurosceptic and populist parties gaining everywhere, and instead of trying to tackle the problem and understand the situation, the response by the EU leadership has simply been 'more Europe, more governance, more Union'.

It's a terrible situation - and things are only getting worse: France has just had it's most violent uprising in 40 years, Macron is the second President in a row to have approval ratings at the 20% mark, early in his term.

I believe if the Executive were more responsive, they'd have made some reasonable progress on issues such as migration, maybe even the Euro, and there'd be much less calamity.