Around the world in 2.5 days

Just ruminating today on the oft-quoted figure that a 2-minute delay at Customs means a queue of lorries 27 km/17 miles or even 29 miles long. I reckon that means a 4 minute delay will produce a queue 54 km long, an hour's delay will lead to an 810km queue, and a day to one of 19,440 km. The circumference of the earth is 40075 km

Meanwhile. D Snow in the Guardian starts off 2019 well by reviewing the history of culturaland trading exchanges with Euope, which shows, he says that: 'There is no end state in our relations with Europe. There is only millennia of collaboration, conquest, disputes, exchange, competition and alliance.' He uses this to argue against a right-wing yearning for ' Splendid isolation, the myth of an imperial Britain standing aloof from Europe in the late 19th century, is their nirvana. Hence the absurd, barely disguised references to empire revivified'.

No need to contest that, of course, but then there is that smuggled in link to the EC/EU, which depends on the 'Europe' of the past being just made identical to the 'Europe ' of the present. And we might as well just give up any naive notions of independence:

We do not get to decide. We do not get to suspend the lunar pull of Europe. We get to argue, negotiate, win, compromise and lose [not a very attractive prospect then?] until the end of time. Leaving the European Union is not an end. It is the beginning of more wrangling, more competition, collaboration and codependence.