The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union has been postponed yet again, this time until the end of January. Although Parliament approved the legislation for executing Brexit based on an agreement brokered between the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the EU's executive committee, the European Council, it refused to fast-track the legislation by the late October deadline that Johnson had promised. A general election will take place in Britain next Thursday to break the stalemate.

The new agreement brokered by Johnson had stipulated that 1) after a period of transition, the U.K. would leave the European customs union; 2) only in Northern Ireland would the regulation of products and agricultural goods remain aligned with the EU; and 3) customs inspections of goods traveling between Northern Ireland and the U.K. "mainland" would continue until the conclusion of a free trade agreement between the U.K. and the EU.

The Brexit vote laid bare the very essence of populist politics.