(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)

Losing influence inside and through the EU as a result of Brexit will amount to Britain’s loss of one its last trappings of being a first-rate great power.

Brexit seems as if it’s going to happen at some point.

(Or is it? The UK and the EU are long past the point of absurdity so who knows?)

One of the most intriguing of the gazillion questions about Brexit’s aftermath is what the United Kingdom (Great Britain) will be like after it.

The cradle of modern-day representative democracy, the source of possibly the world’s greatest humanitarian tradition, the power that used to rule one-fourth of the world and dominated the oceans and seas, the mother of the United States of America, the most talented balancer of the European Continent), the birthplace of the world’s lingua franca, still a top power that keeps punching way above its weight, including by enjoying disproportionate influence inside the European Union for decades.

Yet, the trillion pound sterling question now is:

How great is Great Britain really going to be after Brexit?

The answer isn’t very hard to come up with: not as great as it is before Brexit.

The fact of the matters is that – whether it’s going to be a deal or no-deal Brexit, soft or hard – the UK is going to survive its exit from the European Union just fine.

It might lose some percentage points of its GDP, its citizens might be inconvenienced by some new travel arrangements but the United Kingdom, Great Britain, heck, even England by itself – will be fine.

The difference will be that it will be a UK/GB/EN that will have become a downshifter.

That is right. Norway and Switzerland aren’t in the EU and they still have enviable economies. They’re not exactly world powers but they are alright. The UK is larger in size, sure, but not large enough for the Global Age to go about it all on its own like China, India, or even Russia.

Whether it ends up being a softcore or hardcore Brexit, the UK will be fine as one large Norway. Or, better, yet, a large New Zealand – that’s right, there’s the equation:

UK + Brexit = New Zealand 2.0 x 10…

Read the rest of this article on The European Views website here

(366 words cited  out of a total of 1,302 words)