Frayed Friendships -- Aggravated Angst

"Whoever wants to leave this family cannot expect to have no more obligations but to keep privileges."
"We will ensure that the negotiations are not carried out with the principle of cherry-picking."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel

"If the EU cannot solve the migration situation, then the challenges we experienced now in the case of the United Kingdom will grow."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

"Trade is beneficial to both of us. If you cut off  your noses to spite  your faces, and reject any idea of a sensible trade deal, the consequences would be far worse for you than it would be for us."
Nigel Farage, leader, U.K. Independence Party

"The British remain our friends."
"Democracy is democracy. And we must respect the way the U.K. has voiced its view."
"The British people voted for the exit! Why are you [Farage] even here! [to gloat at the European Parliament]."

Jean-Claude Juncker, president, European Commission

"It was an absolutely negative campaign -- the posters by Mr. Farage were like Nazi propaganda. The climate of fear that has been created -- that is the most shocking thing."
"And today we see the result of it: a multibillion loss in stock market value! A dramatic drop in the pound! It goes down whenever you speak, Mr. Farage!"
Guy Verhofstadt, (former) prime minister, Belgium

"Europe is ready to start the divorce process, even today, without any enthusiasm, as you can imagine."
Donald Tusk, EU President

Vote Leave campaign leader Boris Johnson leaves his home in London on Wednesday. PAUL HACKETT / Reuters

The EU is not prepared to play the aggrieved but tolerant and nice partner left behind. It is smarting with indignation and rancour, even while British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his personal regret and attempts to reason with the bristling irritation that has met him at the EU Summit meeting. His hope that matters would take a leisurely pace, and permit a civil leave-taking with little going-away gifts such as access to EU trade without the tiresome requirement to lock back into open borders has gone the way of the Dodo.

No one in the European Union feels inclined to bless the United Kingdom on its trip back to its fabled past. What is being emphasized is expectations that its inglorious exit be arranged expeditiously, no looking back, no harrumphing and pleadings for special consideration. For the decision by a majority of Brits to leave the coalition of over 500 million people in 28 member-countries to return to its splendid imperial isolation has not been met with kind consideration, none whatever.

Mr. Cameron, however, with British pride and confidence, has dug in his heels. Nothing will move forward until at least October at which time someone else will take his place as the new British leader and the talks can then take place "Britain will be leaving the European Union but I want that process to be as constructive as possible", he contends, reasonably enough. The response from Britain's historical nemesis was predictable: "As fast as possible, the U.K. must submit its notification to leave the European Union", responded his French counterpart, President Francois Hollande.

It's called the bum's rush, and stately Britain is the bum. Meanwhile, Hungary is leading another kind of revolt, the refusal to accept EU refugee quotas imposed on all members. Austria, Germany, Sweden and Denmark, all countries that have seen fit to accept the imposition placed on EU member-countries and which went out of their way to exceed the quotas have all resorted to tighter border controls, a condition brought inevitably about after the uninvited presence of over a million migrants in 2015.