I agree, although I was brought up to think of myself as more European than most of my school friends: My parents spoke German and French at home, they watched Heimat when it was on BBC2, we had Steppdecken when everyone else still had blankets, we went skiing, ate garlic, had family “on the continent”. So the conflict between my identity as a European Brit and the English people around me became so acute when Brexit happened that I left the country. Now I live in Poland and I don’t quite feel at home in London. The current, fully non-European UK doesn’t seem more English to me, it just seems like it’s less of anything.
Britain has had its revolutions. The English Civil War for one. The Reformation removed Catholism from the state apparatus. The Glorious Revolution was part of that.
I agree with most of your points, though many Brexit supporters also don't agree with immigration issues and also that the EU is mired in red tape making decisions cumbersome. While I've always been quite anti-Brexit, I do think that the EU needs to move faster if it wants to compete in the modern world.
for the Portuguese a trip North, to Paris, Switzerland or Germany, was always referred to as "going to Europe". The sense of isolation from Europe, that the British got due to the Channel, Lisbon got it from the 2000 miles to Paris; the same must be true in Naples; Athens; Istanbul; Moscow.
Excellent piece. Very concise and insightful way of explaining why to Europeans why Brits feel different. I'm not sure I'd say Britain lacked revolutionary upheaval, just that it was much earlier. We also managed to build a Whiggish narrative around this upheaval as a 'Glorious Revolution of 1688' in which there was no violent change like in France in 1789 or much of Europe in 1848. Rather rational, sensible progress towards democracy. A somewhat rose tinted narrative that's still told today.
I like to think of myself as European but I know I'm a minority.
I would challenge the assumption being made in the question for a few reasons.
I think of Britain as being in Europe. It is culturally European, but it is not exclusively identified as solely European, and it is not politically EUin.
I feel that those who ask the question are trying to engage Britain in a strange negative feedback loop between EU insiders and EU outsiders. This view comes across as divisive and oddly sectarian from someone who thinks of themselves as " Europeans." It seems to me that this is a very shallow way of thinking of Europe.
I agree, although I was brought up to think of myself as more European than most of my school friends: My parents spoke German and French at home, they watched Heimat when it was on BBC2, we had Steppdecken when everyone else still had blankets, we went skiing, ate garlic, had family “on the continent”. So the conflict between my identity as a European Brit and the English people around me became so acute when Brexit happened that I left the country. Now I live in Poland and I don’t quite feel at home in London. The current, fully non-European UK doesn’t seem more English to me, it just seems like it’s less of anything.
Britain has had its revolutions. The English Civil War for one. The Reformation removed Catholism from the state apparatus. The Glorious Revolution was part of that.
I agree with most of your points, though many Brexit supporters also don't agree with immigration issues and also that the EU is mired in red tape making decisions cumbersome. While I've always been quite anti-Brexit, I do think that the EU needs to move faster if it wants to compete in the modern world.
for the Portuguese a trip North, to Paris, Switzerland or Germany, was always referred to as "going to Europe". The sense of isolation from Europe, that the British got due to the Channel, Lisbon got it from the 2000 miles to Paris; the same must be true in Naples; Athens; Istanbul; Moscow.
And similarly the Nordic countries are their own thing, with far stronger links to each other than to Germany and beyond.
Excellent piece. Very concise and insightful way of explaining why to Europeans why Brits feel different. I'm not sure I'd say Britain lacked revolutionary upheaval, just that it was much earlier. We also managed to build a Whiggish narrative around this upheaval as a 'Glorious Revolution of 1688' in which there was no violent change like in France in 1789 or much of Europe in 1848. Rather rational, sensible progress towards democracy. A somewhat rose tinted narrative that's still told today.
I like to think of myself as European but I know I'm a minority.
I would challenge the assumption being made in the question for a few reasons.
I think of Britain as being in Europe. It is culturally European, but it is not exclusively identified as solely European, and it is not politically EUin.
I feel that those who ask the question are trying to engage Britain in a strange negative feedback loop between EU insiders and EU outsiders. This view comes across as divisive and oddly sectarian from someone who thinks of themselves as " Europeans." It seems to me that this is a very shallow way of thinking of Europe.