Compromise is the loveliest word in democratic politics and beyond – in lasting relationships, labor disputes, international relations. British Prime Minister Theresa May has never more needed the deployment of this lovely and necessary word than now.

In the long learning curve of Brexit a handful of countries outside the European Union have become shorthand for Britain’s options. Norway offers a continuing place in the single market for those who want the softest form of leaving the EU. Canada stands for the free-trade agreement broadly on offer from the union. Now it’s Turkey’s turn to enter the Brexit lexicon – thanks to its customs union with the bloc.

“Darkest Hour,” the film portraying Winston Churchill as he takes the helm in a country teetering on the edge of submission to Nazi Germany, has been nominated for six Oscars, including for best leading actor and picture. The movie plays to a deep national sentiment that Britain can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, portraying the ignominious evacuation of British forces at Dunkirk in 1940 as a triumph. In fact, the real takeaway is precisely the opposite.

Few British budgets have mattered as much as the one that Philip Hammond will deliver to the House of Commons on Nov. 22. The chancellor of the exchequer must shore up Theresa May’s perilously shaky government ahead of a vital Brexit summit of European leaders in mid-December. At the same time Hammond has to keep a grip on the public finances. But the gravest challenge he faces is economic: Britain’s persistent productivity blight.

Great Britain – ever ready to boast stable politics and a faultless, often-called “Rolls Royce” civil service – is in a mess. Between scandals over sex, secret meetings, political donors and the royal family, the government is melting down.

Right now the European Union is united on one thing above all: to get Britain to pay as big a divorce bill as possible when it exits the EU. But while money will unite leaders at this week’s European summit, it will divide them after Brexit.

British politics are a terrible mess. But don’t blame populism, however that’s defined. If anything, blame democracy – however that’s organized.

Can Britain negotiate a painless exit from Europe? Paul Wallace, author of The Euro experiment and a former European economics editor of The Economist, doesn’t think it will be possible.

These are unexpectedly good times for the European Union. More than a year after Britons voted to withdraw from the organization, the euro has hit eight-year highs against the pound, eurozone economies have recorded improved growth and voters have rejected far-right populists in France and the Netherlands.

Watching the slow-motion crash of Britain’s exit negotiations with the European Union is a disconcerting experience. A state that once ran a global empire is looking second-rate as the government’s implausible expectations about what it may be able to achieve in the talks are dashed. The British lack of realism, especially about vital future trading arrangements with the EU, reflects divisions within a government weakened after Prime Minister Theresa May lost her Conservative majority at the general election in June. But it also shows the government’s dismaying lack of historical and strategic understanding about how Britain lost its clout outside the European club more than half a century ago.