Rule Britannia: Keep calm and carry on in wake of Brexit

One of Britain's most popular exports for the past decade or so has been an endless array of products — dish towels, coffee mugs, underpants — branded with the sanguine advice of a Second World War poster: Keep Calm and Carry On.

Remember that advice as those around you grab paper bags and begin to huff breathlessly into them to stave off fears of global collapse in the wake of Brexit.

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Financial markets are turning somersaults as currency traders and market makers scramble to lay their bets on what Britain's departure from the European Union will mean, now and in the future.

Odds are the world will not shift on its axis and tomorrow will dawn pretty much as today did. Britain's economy has survived much worse. 

Truth is, the British have never truly committed to the concept of going all-in with a united Europe. Ceding power to a bunch of po-faced, grey-suited Brussels bureaucrats has always rankled too many Little Englanders who yearn for the stolid, stand-alone-in-the-face-of-adversity attitude that gave birth to iconic Brits such as Lawrence of Arabia, Winston Churchill and Eddie the Eagle. 

For 40 years the country's newspapers have published reams of lurid stories about how EU mandarins wanted to impose regulations that would straighten their bananas and standardize condom sizes. Though largely untrue, such stories found fertile ground among those who felt membership in the EU was akin to bowing to a foreign power.

Confusing game of footsie

So for the past 43 years, successive British governments have played a confusing game of footsie with Brussels. They won't trade the pound for the euro, but they're happy to have London as the financial capital of the EU. They'll accept low-wage Polish service workers to do menial jobs, but won't be a full-scale participant in the Schengen open borders agreement.

Ultimately though, it may have been the European Union's powerlessness to deal with the migrant and refugee crisis that sealed the fate of Britain's European dalliance. Unable to cope with wave after wave of humanity washing up on its shores and stumbling across its borders, Brussels seemed to prove what the anti-EU crowd has always argued — it isn't fit for purpose. If the EU can't secure its own borders, then what good is it?

Voters urged to take back control

To drive the point home the Brexit side launched a late campaign with an image many regarded as odious: a photograph of desperate hordes of refugees lined up at a Slovenian border crossing in 2015 urging voters to "take back control of our borders."The Remain side accused its opponents of racism.

In truth, the whole In/Out campaign was a pastiche of half-truths and outright lies from both sides. The Insies foretold economic collapse and global irrelevance if the UK bolted. The Outsies promised all but a return to Britain's glorious days of imperial splendour. Neither is likely to come to pass.

A successful UK-EU divorce may have two unintended consequences though. It will force Europe to imagine its future without the dragging anchor of Britain holding it back from true political union. It may also put wind in the sails of other groups eager to separate and chart their own course politically and economically. 

Referendum anyone?