On the one hand we’re told that politicians cautiously hold a finger to the wind before acting and lack the courage to get ahead of their constituents. On the other, when politicians step forward—as Obama did on the TPP or ACA or David Cameron did on EU affiliation or Angela Merkel on immigration—their positions are deemed proof of the growing gulf between the governing elite and the masses who would be impacted.

But while the Labour Party tears itself apart, with a challenge to its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn, there are some real positives to take from what happened. There is still a chance that Britain might not leave the EU. Article 50 notification, the official start of the withdrawal process, has not happened, and will not happen until the autumn at the earliest. Once it does, Britain and our European neighbors then have to come to agreements on the status of Brits abroad and Europeans in the United Kingdom, about contributions to the EU budget, and so on. 

Over the course of a few months, the anonymous source—who aptly named himself John Doe in his initial correspondence with the German newspaper—continued to pass information to Süddeutsche Zeitung surpassing what the newspaper had originally expected. Ultimately, Süddeutsche Zeitung  received over 2.6 terabytes of data, making this the biggest leak that journalists have ever had to work with.  

Scotland has voted decisively against breaking from the United Kingdom and becoming an independent country. The key thing to grasp is that there is no precedent for a modern, highly integrated country breaking into two pieces in peacetime. True, Czechoslovakia divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia back in 1992. But both new countries were emerging from communism. Both had to bring in huge numbers of new laws, rules and regulations to create modern, market-based democracies almost from scratch. 

This question is by no means frivolous. Look at the present prime minister, David Cameron. Yes, Mr. Cameron was born in England, and is the product of Eton and Oxford. But he is very obviously of Scots descent. His surname fairly reeks of heather and haggis. Mr. Cameron’s immediate predecessor, Gordon Brown, was born and educated in Scotland. Mr. Brown’s immediate predecessor, Tony Bair, was also born in Scotland. Brown and Blair were both from the Labor Party, which was co-founded by a Scotsman named Keir Hardie. Ramsay MacDonald, another Scot and Labor Party co-founder, became Labor’s first prime minister in 1929.

The Brits are in a tizzy. “What on earth do they know about cricket and curries?” sniffed Tory MP Peter Bone when he heard France’s Dassault had emerged as the lowest bid for India’s $10 billion jet fighter contract.  India is sampling the world, looking for the best bargain on offer.