I think I’ll flag this fascinating documentary on the history of the EU up. I didn’t watch it when it aired last night, fearing it might throw me into a rage, but now that I have, I found it fair and balanced. EU history is much more complex than I thought, and while I’m still very much pro-EU, it has given me pause for thought: I knew nothing, for example, of de Gaulle’s betrayal of the UK or the arrogant, shitty things he said about us.

Even so, I’m still an ‘us’ kind of guy. There is something intrinsically noble about the people of a continent growing beyond their history to work together. We need to stop seeing ourselves as separate: Brits are not exceptional – no one is. We are different but equal; we have the same fears and needs. We face the same problems which we must work together to solve. While we have our cultural differences which need to be preserved, I don’t think our political union will lead to a paneuropean monoculture: the english will still play cricket, the french will still play patonc. Nor do I think that this some kind of conspiracy to foist a worldwide dictatorship on us all – as soon as that begins to happen, there would be mass rebellion. This is about accepting diversity rather than destroying it; and the first step towards acceptance is union.