@Lash,
LOL. You cannot mention any single way in which the EU is "punishing" the UK. That's a lie. They decided to leave, and the rest of us are trying to accommodate their wish the best we can.
Their history is precisely what kills them right now, or more precisely, their
historiography: the way they represent their own history to themselves in a self-serving, self-aggrandizing way. It's important to realize that going beyond petty nationalism is a big part of the EU project. Learning to live with your neighbors, to respect them, and to become less naive about your own role in history, so as to avoid war. The Brits never understood that.
When I first came here, I was subjected to a barrage of oh-so-funny English videos mocking the French, courtesy of Izzy. I wondered where that came from... The French have zero comedy about their neighbors. It'd be seen as untoward, not friendly, and nasty to produce so many comedies about, say, how the Germans or the Italians are so damn stupid... Would US TV channels show comedy pocking fun at Mexicans or Canadians? I doubt it.
But it's par for the course for the Brits, Same with their tabloids, always chock-full of French bashing. They have this big inferiority-cum-superiority complex about the French, and as it turned out about other nations as well. E.g. with the Irish, the contempt displayed by some UK politicians during the past year was simply amazing.
This obsolete anti-European xenophobia led them to that cliff they are now facing. Let's see if they jump, of if they decide to learn some humility and realism instead. Whatever they do, it's gona be their call... But they'll blame the EU for the consequences, no doubt, and so will you.
