[jammies]

I've been surprised over the decades that the EU has lasted at all, especially with it including Britain - the EU is dominated by France and Germany, the former their natural enemy and rival for centuries, and the latter their enemy in the two most devastating wars they ever fought. Britain has never seen itself as European in the same sense as continental nations perceive themselves, as always, geography has a profound effect and the physical separation of the islands mirrors a cultural separation.

There is a definite form of xenophobia, exacerbated by this sense of being an isolated island, that is British (exemplified by the quaintly horrid expression "the wogs start at Calais") and that was exploited by the Leave side, but there is also the legitimate concern that Britain subsumed into Europe won't be Britain at all.

Is a patriot necessarily a racist? I think not, even though, being a typical Canadian, tepid patriotism is all I can muster or accept as rational in others. Still, though, my patriotism is seriously bound up in NOT being an American, so is it fair for me to criticize people whose identity is bound up in not being European?

PS: Let me add I love Americans and America, I just am not and wouldn't want to be one.