An ‘Anglican Brexit’ is Britain’s best hope

One of the many admirable aspects of Japanese culture is that they have developed strong taboos against triumphalism in politics. When one person scores a clear political victory over another there is pressure for him to play down that win and to present the result as a compromise. It’s the natural response of an island nation to early modern political turbulence and division, which harbours a desire to never repeat the experience. Likewise with the British, who after the wars of the three kingdoms became adept at creating a political system that rewarded compromise and discouraged extremism.

Like many of the good things we’ve come to grow up with, the downside of political compromise is that we easily forget how unnatural it is, and how it has to be worked at. Tolerance of wildly different world views does not come naturally to most of us; people feel more comfortable surrounded by people who share their ethos.