Brexit Blues - John Lancaster’s
brilliant piece in the London Review of
Books is worth a close read:
“Kipling asked a
good question: ‘What do they know of England who only England know?’ But
there’s a variation which, today, might be more relevant: ‘What do they know of
the UK who only London know?’ The answer to both questions turns out to be the
same: ‘Not nearly enough.’ England is so small, geographically, that it is easy
to forget that it is also surprisingly big. There is no rich country of
equivalent size that is more densely populated. The only country which has both
more people than England and more people per square kilometre is Bangladesh.
What this means, experientially, is that there is a kind of denseness to
England and to Englishness; England is both very similar to itself and
significantly different when you move ten miles down the road.”