For me, the lack of a strong European myth is exactly what made it so much easier to see myself as European than as British. There’s no part of me with the slightest desire to wave any national flag, but if I had to, I would rather wave a European flag-- which stands for nothing except that I live in a place with 500 million other people who are no better or worse than me-- than wave a British flag, with all the delusional, obnoxious fantasies attached to that.
I think a lot of the other people who felt like they were shot through the heart last week will understand roughly what I mean, while those who voted to do this to us will be totally baffled. Even the “Remain” campaign was built on jingoism-- “Britain Stronger in Europe”, the colours of the British flag-- as though it were simply beyond the human imagination to see how anything else could matter to anyone who happened to live on this island.
