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Most people try to avoid prickly situations. You know, those awkward, uncomfortable moments when one says or does the wrong thing, which is embarrassing for all concerned. The customs and procedures most people consider “good manners” resulted from the need to have standards of social conduct that govern courteous, considerate human interaction.

Major rains often bring severe flooding. Last month witnessed extreme flooding in Peru. Last Friday it was Colombia. As Deutsche Welle reported on April 2, “A total of 17 Mocoa districts have been affected. Many houses simply no longer exist: The people in them didn’t stand a chance. The ground literally gave way beneath their feet, washed away by the sudden, unexpected flood.

“Australia is surveying the devastation wrought by Cyclone Debbie, which has flooded vast tracts ‘almost the size of Texas’ and left at least three dead” (BBC, April 2, 2017). The aftermath and flooding, as well as the current crop destruction, is estimated to reach AU $1 billion. Tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes, thousands are still without power, and this week, as rivers crest, areas of central Queensland could suffer the worst flooding in 60 years (ibid.).

“The European Commission has put its ‘full support’ behind giving Spain a veto on the economic future of Gibraltar” (EU Observer, April 3, 2017). But “the head of Gibraltar’s government has unequivocally stated that his territory will remain British despite Brexit” (Deutsche Welle, April 3, 2017).

Nothing has divided Britain more over the past 40 years than the question of its place in Europe. It joined the nascent EU in 1973 for economic reasons—with the assurance that there was no political dimension involved.

But after the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 revealed the political ambitions of the EU, establishing itself as a political entity in its own right, a growing proportion of the British complained they had never been truthfully consulted about the organisation they were now part of—one that was headed toward “ever closer union” and some kind of federated superstate.