Indeed - Whatever the new reality, we will adapt eventually. In the meantime it will be the UK going to hell and not the EU.
Some of the reasons are in a couple of basic misconceptions about Brits and our place in the Grand Scheme of Things as evidenced by the excellent Messrs. Morton and Atilla:
Yes they are (as it's panto season do feel free to shout "Oh no they're not!")... and we wouldn't be in this shiite* if they weren't.
Secondly:
Again, part of the problem is that we
are a small country that has been in
relative economic and political decline for the best part of a hundred years. We had our day in the sun (or 15 minutes of fame, if you prefer) and the world can get along very nicely without us and that includes the EU.
So that's us in a nutshell: stupid, irrelevant and living in the past.
I might be a tad sad if I wasn't such a patriot
*apologies to any Shiites on the forum