May 8
VE in Europe day. The day when Europe could start to rebuild, and to build in ways that never again would see its lands devastated by war. The roots of the European Union are here, in centuries of conflict culminating in what should have been unthinkable acts of murder. Sadly, very little mention of this today on the BBC, as there has been over the decades very little discussion of the fundamental rationale for the EU.
Britain in its hubris is withdrawing from this in the name of some obscure interpretation of 'sovereignty', which was never threatened by its membership.
In doing so it is withdrawing from centuries of progress in international cooperation and development, and acting in ways that are making our Commonwealth partners cringe; as if it was still a colonial power everyone should look up to.
It's one thing to be conservative; another to deny history and the advancement of ideas and though that was the enlightenment.
France and Holland have stuck on that path, rejecting the populist, backwards looking right in their elections.
Will Britain? With the agenda being driven by people who still think the empire exists and Britain is due the spoils of a victor, perhaps not.