Do mention the War...

Should have written this yesterday after the Graun's headline story (sic!) that the outgoing German ambassador has moved on and given  a speech about the Brits still worrying about German doimination of Europe: 'Ammon said Britain was rightly proud of its history, but some Brexiters were motivated by a sense of national identity built around Britain standing alone in the second world war.' He then went on to trot out the usual dire warnings of the impossibility of ever getting a good deal ,which only made us wonder how much of the earlier part of this speech was really him, as opposed to some EU script.

I don't suppose they will ever get it. A bit like Nougayrede last time, Brexiteers can only be understood as under the spell of an ancient religion, nationalism in this case.They need a new religion, still something sacred they can believe in (global capitalism). Of course, they evidently cannot choose this religion for themselves but have to be led by elite spokespersons.

Guardian letter writers debated the issues rather better today. Naturally, I quite liked this one:

Will continental politicians and diplomats ever realise that the UK is not abandoning Europe, but leaving the EU (German ambassador tells Brexiters: stop fixating on second world war, 30 January)? If the German ambassador wants to understand the “finest hour” legend, he should look for the truth beneath the mythology. In standing alone the British people put the interests of Europe first, resolving to die fighting rather than allow the Nazis to dominate the continent. [bit flowery, that last sentence]