Tension outside Downing Street as Brexit supporters jeer at pro-EU demonstrators
The United Kingdom leaves the European Union on Friday with a mixture of joy, anger and indifference, casting off into the unknown in one of the biggest blows yet to Europe's attempt to forge unity from the ruins of World War Two.
In the United Kingdom's most significant geopolitical move since its lost its empire, the EU's most reluctant member prepared to exit an hour before midnight.
Brexit supporters burned an EU flag outside Downing Street, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official residence. Some EU supporters were mocked by a group of Brexiteers nearby chanting "Bye-bye EU" and "Shame on you" to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.
At the stroke of midnight in Brussels, the EU will lose 15% of its economy, its biggest military spender and the world's international financial capital - London. Britain must begin charting a course for generations to come.
For proponents, Brexit is "independence day" - an escape from what they cast as a doomed German-dominated project with a doomed single currency that is failing its 500 million people.
They hope departure will herald reforms to reshape Britain and propel it ahead of its European rivals.
Opponents believe Brexit is a folly that will weaken the West, shrivel what is left of Britain's global clout, undermine its economy and ultimately lead to a less cosmopolitan set of islands in the northern Atlantic. They say Britain will now have little option but to cosy up to US President Donald Trump.
But after the numerous twists and turns of a 3-1/2-year crisis, many voters are simply happy that years of wrangling are over.
(Source: Reuters)
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