Don't keep calling me Shirley!
If the Brexit vote hadn't been a very finely balanced thing for me, I wouldn't have been arguing about it here for the past 5 years. The EEC/Single Market aspects of the EU (the SM a largely Brit invention, remember) have always seemed to be sensible. The ideology, the secrecy, the subterfuge, the contempt for any real notion of democracy, the political activism and mission creep of the CJEU, the bullying nastiness of the EU institutions, the stifling bureaucracy, the cultural homogenisation and the imperial pretensions, all of which have been on cocksure and shameless display throughout the divorce (and no, I'm not referring to the utterly incompetent British conduct) have always repelled me.
Buyer's remorse? Not exactly. Some regrets? Many.
Well, it was a word that I was going to use myself, and I owe you a condescention, so be my guest.
I enjoyed Riccardo Muti's speech in Vienna this evening. I hope culture holds us together in the next few years. Sometimes it feels like all we've got.