Brexit requires new breed of leadership

Yet divisions will remain and possibly, for a while, suspicions with them. Tonight, the United Kingdom is more than a little disunited, emotionally and in terms of its aspirations.

Shaping the first pages in this new chapter in Britain’s history will also require leadership that focuses on strategy more than tactics, building on patiently-thought-through priorities. It will need to see over the horizon and beyond the nation’s front door.

Many voices will clamour to be heard as the UK seeks to decide what kind of “independent” state it will be. I use the word independent advisedly, as no nation is truly independent in an increasingly globalised world.

Indeed, most nations of any note today – even in the developing world – are uniting in blocs of one form or another, to bolster influence and cut costs with trade.

In Asia, the APEC network of nations provides economic opportunities for nations including Australia and New Zealand. The BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are seeking to work more closely in terms of trade and development. Other blocs operate at differing levels of cooperation to form gateways of innovation, commerce and understanding.

Eventually, the UK will need to find its way into another perhaps non-political bloc, at the very least for trading purposes.

While the Commonwealth’s 53 nations provide a healthy and natural potential grouping for Britain, they operate at differing levels of GDP. Aside from the UK, none of them has any notably global influence. It’s never healthy for a nation like ours to cooperate only with nations of lesser influence.

As they formulate plans for the future, our leaders will confront demands for urgent attention from vested interests in trade, science, technology, banking, financial service and politics.

Media opinionators will urge this course of action or that; each one supposedly more imperative than the last. Meanwhile, heads of political parties will elbow their interests forward. Indeed, this was happening within a few hours of today’s result.

Mid-morning, David Cameron stood solemnly behind a lectern outside Number 10 Downing Street. His wife Samantha, wearing a distinctly worried expression, stood by as he delivered a heartfelt and composed speech.

In it he pledged to resign in time for a new leader of his party – and a new Prime Minister – to emerge following the Conservatives’ October conference.

A little while later, across town, Brexit leaders Boris Johnson and Michael Gove spoke about the next moves for the nation. Gove said that the UK would gradually extricate itself from the EU machine, while Johnson spoke of Britain remaining a committed friend of Europe and a major player in the European region.