“There’s never been anything like this before, in the history of British democracy. Sounds like an emergency, and the most important legislation in the last forty years has been rushed through parliament, while usually it takes at least a year to pass an ordinary act”. It’s a few hours to the “royal assent”, the Queen’s seal on the 137 words that mark Great Britain’s divorce from the European Union, and, according to Sotirios Zartaloudis, professor of politics at Birmingham University, “the government is pressing on the accelerator”. “Though they want to stay in the EU, at the House of Commons yesterday many MPs voted for Brexit, because they fear they might be accused not to be democratic and not to abide by people’s will”, the expert in European politics explains. The Prime Minister, Theresa May, will wait till the end of March before invoking article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which will kick-start the negotiation, and professor Zartaloudis sees only one last chance to stop the UK’s leaving the EU. “If the economy were seriously damaged, then voters could decide to step back, but unfortunately the effects of Brexit will not be felt for a few years. The government already warned that it could leave the single market without any agreement if the negotiations fail. A possibility that would have been considered science fiction just a short while ago”, he says.