Following yet another extension, the United Kingdom has avoided crashing out of the EU - for now.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has until October 31 to pass a withdrawal deal through an increasingly divided Parliament.
Europe Correspondent Lloyd Burr asked Professor Anand Menon from King’s College London why Europe agreed to extend the deadline.
"If we hadn't had that deal yesterday we would be hurtling towards a cliff edge with no deal at all and neither we nor the EU wanted that," the Professor said.
Menon says the problem facing May is unifying separate political factions who have mutually exclusive bottom lines.
"It's a bit like a political Rubik’s cube that the Prime Minister is going to have to struggle with and it's very very hard getting the sides all aligned.
"In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if it's a Rubik’s cube with some pieces missing."
Menon says the UK population didn't know what they were in for when they voted to leave the EU, partly because they weren't sure what they were leaving.
"The Brits have never really got what the European Union is...the Leave Campaign made it sound very simple, as they would."
While he says Brexit was always destined to be disruptive, a 'weak' Prime Minister has made the process much more difficult than it needed to be.
But Menon did have some words of praise for the embattled British PM.
"The one thing that has become abundantly clear about Theresa May is that she is not a quitter, she will hang on against the odds. She will defy the pundits."
Menon says while there is Brexit fatigue in the British population, there is also a sense of Brexit 'obsession'.
"Brexit has become the new tribal divide, more people identify as leave or remain than identify as Labour or Conservative."
"The one thing, sadly, that British people now agree on is that their politicians are letting them down."
Watch the video for the full interview.
Newshub Nation.
Watch Newshub Nation 9:30am Saturday/10am Sunday on TV3, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Newshub Nation is supported by NZ On Air.
