"It's a failure, it's a tragedy."

Well, I never thought I would agree with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.  The UK leaving the EU:  “it’s a failure, it’s a tragedy”.

But the question is why it is a tragedy?  

Well, I guess that depends on where you are starting from.  It’s a tragedy if your hope was even greater integration in the EU with nation states giving more powers to the EU Commission.  Now that won’t happen, certainly not with the UK there.   

Then there is the other view, it’s a tragedy because such greater integration was always going to lead to tensions that could break up the consensus of the political classes.  And the EU leaders couldn’t see that elephant in the room.  So their project, as they keep calling it, is damaged.

From my doorstep view it has ended in failure and is a tragedy because those driving the EU bus didn’t watch out for the road signs.  And the result was the start of a crash that will go on till the EU as it has been constructed in this grand project is brought back to its pre Maastricht days.  That was a “union” most could all agree was a good one.