Why us? Why is the UK the first – and only – country to decide to leave the EU? Greenland, Algeria (when it was part of the French empire) and the French Caribbean island of St Barthélemy have all been in the EU and are no more, but the UK is the first full member country to hold a referendum and decide ‘enough’. Why us, and not one of the many other members nursing doubts about the EU?
There are many reasons, none of which are to do with us being more inward looking or racist. We are an island, but arguably the most outward looking EU nation. We do have issues with racism, but various studies have concluded we are among the least racist countries in Europe. But being an island does mean we see ourselves apart from the rest of the EU in ways other members don’t (our sockets are different, we drive on the other side, and if there is fog in the Channel we think Europe is cut off). In contrast, being able to drive casually into a next door country does make you feel more intimately tied to them.
We are by some margin the largest non-founding member (the three others of the ‘big four’ – Germany, France, Italy – were all founders.) As a non-founder we have never really felt it is ‘our’ project; as a large country we have the confidence to divorce in the way a smaller country wouldn’t.
But there are also fundamental differences in national psychology that have fuelled Euroscepticism here. We have a triumphalist mentality fuelled by our history of world wars and empire (and evident in our football hooligans). We are the only EU member that sees the Second World War as a moment of national triumph, which is because we are the only EU member that actually won the Second World War (with the USSR and USA, and other non-EU allies).
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