SINCE THE JANUARY ISSUE of Eureka! went to press before Christmas, this is the first issue of the magazine to have appeared since the United Kingdom left the European Union under the terms of a trade agreement. In other words, Brexit has happened and we finally know what the terms of our withdrawal are. No sooner does one broach this subject than there is a temptation for one's heart to sink. Not another rehearsal of the arguments for or against or yet more dire warnings about the consequences of leaving. More than four years of these discussions have left many of us weary of them. That is not to say that these discussions were not valuable, simply that there comes a point when they cease to be useful and instead become an impediment to progress. I have been deliberately reticent about commenting on Brexit for reasons I outlined last year. The most pressing of these was that the subject has become so divisive that virtually any comment on it or its implications will tend to be perceived by one side or the other as partisan. Another reason was its sheer ubiquity: I had no wish to add my voice to the cacophony of opinions that were available.
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