John Harris, writing the The Guardian, thinks doomsday has to happen so that Imperial delusions fade. They must be finally tested in the real world and found wanting, whereupon the UK may at last be ready to humbly engage with modernity. And in that sense, to paraphrase a faded politician, Brexit probably has to mean Brexit. That may result in a long spell of relative penury, and an atmosphere of recrimination and resentment. By the time everything is resolved a lot of us will either be very old or dead. But that may be the price we have to pay to belatedly put all our imperial baggage in the glass case where it belongs, and to edge our way back into the European family, if they will have us. A ridiculous approach that thinking Britons must reject.