Brexit and the British

Whatever the eventual outcome of the Brexit negotiations, the critical questions remain: what does the Referendum vote tell us about the sort of society we are?

We have not been wholly honest with ourselves about our past and this has allowed us to ignore uncomfortable truths. It is time to acknowledge that underlying all the sound and fury of the Brexit debate was a question – whether or not fully recognised – about our identity.

STEPHEN GREEN was an international banker and Minister for Trade and Investment between 2011-2013. He chairs the Natural History Museum and Asia House, is an ordained priest of the Church of England and is a member of the House of Lords. He is the author of The European Identity: Historical and Cultural Realities We Cannot Deny and Reluctant Meister: How Germany’s Past is Shaping its European Future.