A very pertinent essay, Andy. As someone with British parents who grew up outside the nation and who's lived & worked all over the world since then, I knew Brexit would succeed while everyone else was (correctly) pointing out that you'd have to be stupid and suicidal to vote to leave the EU. The Brits, uniquely, self-poison with infantile narratives about how "we stood alone" and "we won the war" largely because the UK has so little to cheer about otherwise. From Doctor Who to Top Gear and the endless repeats of Battle of Britain, ordinary Brits are filled with nonsense that totally distorts their perceptions of the UK (a middle-ranking nation fading slowly into relative obscurity) and leads them to imagine that if only they stood up and cheered loudly enough the various nations that once comprised the (highly exploitative) British Empire will come begging to be allowed back into the fold. Furthermore, Britain and France actually caused WWII due to their total incapacity to stand up to Hitler in the early phase of his reign when it would have been effortless to do so. Their cowardice and indecision directly led to WWII and all the horrors thereof. In the end, the Brits retreated into fantasy world instead of looking accurately at events, and today's absurd self-harm of Brexit is merely one consequence among far too many. The UK is now irrevocably on a path to becoming the world's gloomiest banana republic and one can't help but feel it is condign.