This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, November 28th, 2018.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Theresa May has a heck of a job, sell her Brexit deal to leaveers as it's this or we may forever be ensnared

by the European Union, and sell the same deal to remainers as it's this or we leave the European

Union without a deal. Cato's Ryan Bourne the European Union without a deal.

Cato's Ryan Bourne discusses the current politics of Brexit.

From the outside looking in, it looks like Brexit was an idea

that was cobbled together into a referendum and then passed and then it seems

like everyone pretty much at the same time said oh my goodness one this past and, how are we actually going to do this? And it has been a very difficult

path. What are the terms of the agreement that Theresa May has put together?

Well I think you're right in that the establishment didn't think Brexit was going to happen

and so were put into a tail spin when the referendum result came through. What it's important to remember

about the deal that is being talked about now is that that's a withdrawal agreement.

It's not a deal that defines the future long-term relationship between the EU and the UK.

So in late March 2017, the UK triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and that started a two-year clock on formal

proceedings for the UK to leave the EU. Now under the provisions of that article, within that

two years the EU and the leaving country had to negotiate a withdrawal

agreement so the scope of this particular agreement was about things like

the rights of UK citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK at the

point of Brexit, would they be able to stay, would they have access to welfare, things like that.

That's all been agreed for a long time but it's also about a transition period

into any future relationship a financial settlement between the UK and the EU

...