Athena’s wisdom and the Brexit folly

Ten seconds summarized the steep decline in the status of a great nation in its self-destructive sleepwalk towards Brexit. That was when Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, standing tall next to a crumpled Boris Johnson, described the endless negotiations, from a position of weakness, awaiting the UK. In the Herculean task of negotiating free trade deals "we will be the UK's friend and ally, your Athena," said Varadkar. The allusion was not lost on the classically educated Johnson. The mythological hero Hercules, having lost his mind at the hands of Hera, killed his children and was only prevented from killing his father thanks to Athena's intervention, which knocked him unconscious.
Many have pointed out the "impossible trinity" of a single market and customs union exit, no hard border with Ireland, and an all-UK approach to Brexit. It should be no surprise then that Johnson's...