Theresa May delivered her letter to European Council President Donald Tusk this morning, officially triggering Brexit .
The letter was handed to Tusk by British Ambassador to Brussels this morning. As he handed over the letter, Prime Minister Theresa May was outlining its contents in the House of Commons. “This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back,” she said. “Britain is leaving the European Union .”
What this does is begin a 2 year process that ends on midnight of March 29, 2019. The countdowns are no doubt already underway. On a practical level this means that there are still plenty of opportunities for mischief and sabotage. And May is looking for an extensive set of arrangements with the EU while EU officials are threatening assorted consequences to the UK. It's open to question whether they will decide that achieving a deal is better than trying to make the UK feel the pain. Considering the EU's history, it's quite possible that the latter is what will take place no matter how cheerful Tusk is being.
Merkel is pushing to make the exit as hard and unpleasant as possible. That means negotiating termination without putting into place a framework of agreements to replace it. That will have a negative impact on Europe, and on counterterrorism, which May and the EU have both referenced, but Merkel is willing to help terrorists to hurt the UK and maintain the EU's reign of terror over free nations.