Great day arrives!

Too much coverage in the news today.The Times has a whole insert,and the Graun this:

The papers are full of stories,potted histories and opinion pieces. So what to choose? How about this by G Hinsliff:

As Britain reaches the point of no return, it’s the deeper gut feelings of being European that are bubbling up

Hinsliff's own imagined Europe began with memories of her mother working in Geneva (alone? -- we don't know):

In winter, her colleagues reportedly went skiing at weekends, which sounded unfeasibly glamorous. There was even the suspicion of a cigarette in some of the pictures, although we had never seen her smoke at home. Abroad, which she had apparently discovered just by answering an ad on the London underground, was evidently somewhere rules could be broken. It’s no accident that I went for foreign languages at school....[she had] a gut sense acquired in childhood that foreign isn’t frightening, and lives opened up to the world will be more exciting than ones shut away from it.

More or less my feelings too --it's the towering neolib bureaucracy promoting globalisation I have always disliked. I think most of the European writers I have read would agree with me.

People who backed remain made and lost their case on more practical, hard-boiled economic arguments, steering clear of this muddier emotional territory [really?]. But as Britain reaches tonight’s point of no return from Brexit, it’s the deeper gut feelings that are bubbling up...[So the issue now is] how to keep the door open, preserve the social and cultural ties that bind, prevent Britain becoming a crabby and shrivelled country alienated from its own continent

I'm all for that. I'm trapped in English (and schoolboy French) but most of my reading, fiction and non-fiction, is still Continental:

[we should] resolve to learn or brush up on European languages, follow European voices on social media, keep up with European novels, films and exhibitions, or occasionally pick up the European newspapers (in English-language editions if necessary) [unthinkable for we who have cultural capital but even you plebs can muddle along if you force yourselves, as a duty]

The only consolation, on a bleak day for anyone who got unexpectedly weepy [get a grip fer Chrissake] watching MEPs link arms and sing Auld Lang Syne to their departing British colleagues, is that this is one of the lamentably few aspects of Brexit over which ordinary citizens still have some control...each of us still has a personal choice to make about how close we stay culturally and emotionally to the neighbours who cannot help but feel rejected ...we are all free as citizens to choose how we treat the 3 million-plus EU citizens still living in Britain, who cross our paths every day as friends, neighbours and colleagues, and have been made to feel gratuitously unwelcome

As usual, it's Britcringe -- we have sinned, we have upset people with our misguided and irrational insistence on autonomy, so we have to atone . We even have to apologise for any imaginary hurts to anyone who looks foreign.

T Garton-Ash goes for the statesmanlike::

...only the most selfish, vengeful ex-remainer would wish those who voted for Brexit to suffer as a result. We are as patriotic as any Brexiteer,...At the same time, we emphatically do not want Brexit to damage the larger European project. If Brexit goes very badly, producing an unstable, angry, resentful country, that will be bad for the entire EU. But the EU would also suffer in the unlikely event that “global Britain” were to fulfil the dreams of the Brexiteers, becoming such an attractive advertisement for independence that other member states might eventually follow suit....In the long run, a “successful” Brexit will therefore depend on other nations not following the British example. It will be parasitic on the continued existence of the EU.[something in that, I will admit]

Luckily, there is business as usual to fall back on:

At Oxford University, we will be working to ensure we remain fully engaged in European intellectual life, as we have been for the last 800 years. The Guardian – which every month has more than 20 million monthly unique browsers in Europe (outside the UK) and is one of the most popular news outlets across the continent – will be reinforcing its European presence and coverage. Comparable steps can be taken by everyone from museums to football clubs, astronomers to zoologists....Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will: such is the perennial brief of the liberal realist [actually more often associated with Islington's favourite marxist A Gramsci]

And what of da yoof? The Graun update bit has this:

Here are the thoughts of some young people who’ve contacted the Guardian to give their take on Britain’s departure from the EU.

A 21 year-old student:

“I have a British mum and a Dutch dad. Having grown up living between Portugal and the UK (but having only a British passport) my identity has always been that of a European Brit. Today that identity feels like it is no longer allowed by what I thought to be my country...“So I feel deeply sad and hurt by what is happening today and can only hope for the best, and the speedy resolution of my application for a Portuguese passport!

An 18-year old

“I’m going to a vigil tonight to mark our exit from Europe, and I’m going to campaign for our re-entry from day one. I’m terrified we will fall further into the American sphere – I’d take Europe over them any day.  

A 21-year old Guardina reader from Newcastle [probably the only one]

“I feel sad and a little sombre; I feel like I never had a voice, as I was frustratingly just one month too young to vote in the 2016 referendum. My maternal grandparents were Italian and emigrated to the UK in the 1950s. Although this was before the EU existed in its current form, I feel that if they were alive today, they’d be disappointed, as the EU was originally formed to prevent wars ravaging Europe and ultimately, stamp out the fascism which my grandparents tried to escape.

A bit calmer than before, and at least they now have something to do -- go on vigils, campaign for re-entry, apply for a Portuguese passport, imagine what their grandparents would have thought. Imaginary cultural politics seems as fruitful as ever.