Pretty much everything you need to know about Britain’s relationship to the European Union can be found at a hotel breakfast table. In most places, you’ll be offered a continental breakfast—pastries, coffee, jam, cold cuts—or an English breakfast: eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast, tomatoes. The former is from Europe, the latter from England. No meaningful cultural relationship exists between the two.
So there is Britain and there is Europe. When we debate in Britain whether we should be “in” Europe, it is more than just a political question; it actually lays bare a fundamental geopolitical confusion. We have lost our bearings. It’s almost like we arrived at this place—geographically, politically, culturally—by accident.
When we talk about the ways that the Germans, the French, or the Danes do things differently, we…
