A nation must think before it acts.
At the heart of the Brexit debate lies the question of borders. Advocates of leaving the European Union emphasized the need for Britain to “take control” of its borders, with special attention to reducing the flow of immigrants, while not harming British global trade. Brexiteers claimed that decoupling from the EU would allow Britain to pursue future free trade agreements superior to anything they could get within it. In other words, they promised to have hard borders against people while opening borders to goods, services, and capital.