After Brexit, Britain will still have European cities. Can someone tell the EU?

When Britain voted to leave the EU, it didn’t necessarily follow that we’d be kicked out of its European Capital of Culture scheme – given that it aimed to be exactly that, rather than an EU Capital of Culture. After all Istanbul, Reykjavík and Stavanger all qualified and all won. There were some ominous signs: a few weeks ago, the European Parliament voted to amend the rules the scheme should be open to candidate states and EEA nations – butno mention was made of former members. So Iceland would be included in consideration for European status, but Britain excluded.

It looked like a mean-hearted attempt to punish Britain for leaving, but could it really be so? Could it include Turkey which (as we were assured during the referendum campaign) is never realistically going to join the EU but exclude Britain? Common sense suggested not: the capital of culture idea was a friendly, inclusive scheme designed to underline the cultural divergence of a continent, not a bureaucratic bloc.