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Even at the best of times Britain has always been a semi-detached member of the EU.  Since then Britain has often been more skeptical of the European project than committed to it; the country has been called “the awkward partner”.

Britain eventually joined in 1973, as Europe seemed to be doing so well economically.  Over the past few decades British governments have kept their distance as others within Europe pursued "ever closer union". Britain did not join the single currency, and it is not a member of the Schengen passport-free travel zone.

Traditional hostility to the EU has increased in recent years with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of east Europeans to find work, and Migrants,  who became a source of threat to the stability.

The country could become like Switzerland, which has an association with the EU, or more like Norway and Iceland, which are inside the European Economic Area, and thus the internal market, but with no power to change the rules of that market. Or, Britain might find a spurned EU an unwilling partner.  It is every where.        Just a thought