FILE - In this May 4, 1979 file photo, Britain's Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher waves to wellwishers as she arrives at 10 Downing Street, London with her husband Denis, right. Thatcher led her party to victory in the General Election and was asked to form a new government. Britain is facing the most testing and significant, some would say tortuous, period in its modern history since World War II. The polarized electorate now has a critical choice to make _but it seems unlikely the result, whatever it may be, will heal deep and toxic divisions that could last a generation or more. (AP Photo/Bob Dear, File)
Britain is facing the most testing and significant period in its modern history. The country is going to the polls on Thursday, and the result will shape Britain’s future. But it seems unlikely to heal deep and toxic divisions that could last a generation or more. In the nearly 75 years since the British public ousted Winston Churchill at the end of World War II, there have been other pivotal polling days — in 1964, 1979, 1997 and 2010 — and now the “Brexit election” serves up another inflection point.
