“We are the nation of empire, whose ancestors once controlled a quarter of the globe; we are the mother of parliaments; we stood alone against Hitler; we have not been conquered for a thousand years. We feel remarkable.
The Brexiteers convinced enough of the electorate that we needed only to be set free from Europe to become a proud, swashbuckling, dominant and richer country again.
This promise is a stunning misunderstanding of who we are, what we are capable of and where we stand in the world. We don’t have the skills, the manufacturing base, the drive or the productivity we would need to take off as an independent nation.
Britain is not an economic powerhouse waiting to be liberated. We are a country of mediocre education and limited skills, whose preening vanity has prevented us from seeing our failings. Our membership in the EU is not a set of restraints; it is what has been propping us up.”
Jenni Russell
New York Times
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