The British national flag is lowered down outside the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Jan. 31, 2020. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)
Divorce is painful, so is Britain's departure from the European Union (EU) after 47 years' of membership.
Over the past three and a half years, Britain has been deeply divided over Brexit, a move opposed by 48 percent of the country in the June 2016 referendum.
"This is not an end, but a beginning," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a televised speech to the whole nation at around 10:00 p.m. (2200 GMT) on Friday, one hour ahead the moment Britain finally broke free from the EU.
It is the beginning for the prime minister to avoid the "B word" in his speech to mark the official British exit. "Brexit will not be mentioned, unless you count saying that we don't want to talk about Brexit any more," said one of Johnson's aides.
Although Johnson made a big election promise to "get Brexit done", Brexit will only get done until 2021, if everything goes smoothly.
In comparison with banishing the popular word, it is even more painful for London to enter into trade talks with the EU after the 11-month transition period kicks off on Feb. 1.
It has been an uphill struggle for British negotiators to reach the Withdrawal Agreement with their EU counterparts. However, the subsequent negotiations are regarded as an even harder nut for London to crack.
The upcoming negotiations will cover sensitive issues such as trade, immigration, environmental rules, farming and financial services. Clearly, it would be difficult to satisfy both Britain's fishing community and financial sector at the same time.
One of the Brexit costs will be reflected in terms of access to the EU market. Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned that Johnson should expect no special favors from Ireland on access to the single market in EU trade talks.
After the first phase of Brexit talks between Ireland and Britain, Donohoe dismissed the notion that his government might now adopt a softer stance on single market rules than bigger EU powers such as France, according to the Financial Times. The Irish minister said that even after the Feb. 8 election in his country, Dublin's stance on the single market would be unlikely to change.
Britain's stance meant the timetable to achieve a deal before the transition ends on Dec. 31 would be extremely tight as Johnson had promised not to extend the period.
For Johnson, it is a political victory that Brexit finally becomes a legal reality. However, British embassies around the world have been instructed not to hold any special events to mark its EU divorce amid concerns that any "triumphalism" would be badly received by their host countries.
The British government has been clear about the cost of Brexit with the promise of benefits only currently remaining on lips or paper.
The government's own economic analysis of Brexit in 2018 put the long-term loss in GDP per capita of a close future EU relationship at some 1.4 percent, against a loss of 4.9 percent for a more distant one.
British manufacturers also protested. The car and aerospace industries, chemicals and pharmaceutical firms all talked of adverse consequences of Britain's regulatory divergence, according to the Economist magazine.
The EU already warned that greater regulatory divergence would necessarily mean a more distant trading partnership between London and Brussels. Experts warned that Britain needs to tide itself over before it could really enjoy the benefits its negotiators win in the hard talks.
Brussels, which is pessimistic about the 11-month timetable for reaching a deal, made it clear that Britain will have to accept worse terms and conditions for trade than if it were still an EU member.
As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pointed out: "We want to have the best possible relationship with the United Kingdom, but it will never be as good as membership."
