Britain Backtracks as Panic Rises

New York Times: “Prime Minister David Cameron and the former London mayor Boris Johnson, members of the governing Conservative Party who were on opposite sides of the debate over Britain’s membership in the 28-nation bloc, both signaled on Monday that they hoped Britain could, while leaving the European Union, somehow maintain access to its signature achievement: the world’s largest common market.”

“But as the leaders of Germany, France and Italy met to discuss the fallout from the British referendum, there were no signs that the European Union would let Britain off the hook so easily.”

“The few countries that have been given access to the European free-trade zone without joining the bloc — notably, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland — all contribute to the European Union’s budget and accept its bedrock principle of free movement of workers, the very issues that angered so many of the Britons who voted to leave in Thursday’s referendum.”