Britain after Brexit

Over the next few weeks, we can expect breathless reporting about the Brexit deal and its dynamics: the state of phytosanitary checks in the Irish Sea and the desirability of chlorinated chicken. But the real question about Brexit is about what type of country we become, once the process is complete and sovereignty has been retrieved from Brussels. And it’s a question to which the Conservative government is finally beginning to provide an answer.

Theresa May’s concluding speech to her conference was one of the best she has given as leader. She spoke about what Michael Howard called the British dream: that children and grandchildren of immigrants and refugees can, in this country, rise to the cabinet. She emphasised that Britain is ideally placed for a global trading future: we can talk to Shanghai in the morning and San Francisco in the evening. It was hard to believe that this was the same leader who was snarling about ‘citizens of nowhere’ two years ago.