Mal Fletcher considers the UK's future in light of Brexit.

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 the 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.

Neither addressed the issue of whether or not, in this divorce, the UK would lose the children.

The EU referendum has not only divided some families, it has divided a family of nations. Wales, though often a beneficiary of EU funding, opted to Leave. Scotland voted clearly for Remain, as did Northern Ireland, which has the only UK land border with another EU country.

Almost immediately, the leader of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, pledged to set in motion a legal framework for a second Scottish independence vote. Shortly thereafter, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuiness, called for a poll on establishing a united Ireland.

With all this happening on his/her flank, the next Prime Minister must trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, officially setting in motion a disengagement from the EU. Two years of relative uncertainty will follow.

This will require leadership marked by a statesman-like sense of calm, along with the ability to project proactive forward-thinking and bold innovation.

During this time, lawyers will argue over the terms of the EU divorce. In a sometimes febrile atmosphere, the UK will need to negotiate with its erstwhile EU companions a new type of trade arrangement.