Britain isolated - Brexit implications

THE Brexit train is not just gathering speed, it looks like it is going off the rail. Attempts by Prime Minister Theresa May to reinvigorate “splendid isolation”, a foreign policy pursued by Britain during the late 19th century, appears to be leading to even greater seclusion within Europe.

The latest salvo directed at the UK’s attempts to broker a deal with the EU akin to that enjoyed by Norway has come from within the Norwegian government itself.

Norway’s European affairs minister, Elisabeth Vik Aspaker, has expressed hesitations about the UK possibly returning to the European Free Trade Association, the small group of small nations that has access to the European single market without being part of the EU.

“It’s not certain that it would be a good idea to let a big country into this organisation,” Ms Aspaker told Aftenposten, Norway’s biggest daily. “It would shift the balance, which is not necessarily in Norway’s interests.”

The UK is finding out that its own interests may not prevail in a post-Brexit world.