The British have voted to leave the European Union, and good riddance. The European Union was always a shotgun marriage. We all remember countries that voted No being badgered and threatened into voting again and again until, wearily, they voted Yes, at which point the vote was final. The EU was always a French dream to tie the hands of Germany, and the dream lived for many years, but now it is ending. What will happen next is anybody’s guess, but the days of totally disparate European countries being ruled by unelected Brussels bureaucrats is clearly at an end. Britain has said No!, or maybe Enough!, and European nationalism has come awake, wondering how the heck that EU business could have happened. But even with shotgun marriages, a breakup leaves feelings of guilt and regret, because the marriage wasn’t uniformly dismal. There were the kids, of course, and the times we walked the beach under the stars on warm summer nights, the trips to the theater with laughter and drinks at intermission, and those cold winter nights we kept each other warm, so a certain amount of sadness is to be expected. But the Marxist/Leftist Blue Model of governance is kaput, or as Bob Dylan might say, it’s all over now, baby blue

The times we had to bail out ancient Greece
Who yearned for gods and Jason’s golden fleece
Complaining of their treatment without cease
And giving to us not a moment’s peace
But it’s all over now, baby Blue
The time the Eastern Bloc clamored to join
They gave us paper marks for golden coin
The happy times we fished the Irish Boyne
Incoming cash we’d laughingly purloin
Well that’s all over now, baby Blue
We Brits are on our own, like good Queen Bess
Empire, Drake and Hawkins is my guess
Though guilt and some regret I will confess
I wish the breakup movement much success
Yes it’s all over now, baby Blue