What I've learned from talking to Americans about Brexit

I’m an Oxbridge graduate in my twenties and a native speaker of a Romance language. I’m a citizen of nowhere rather than somewhere, and two years ago I moved to the United States. I could be the illustrated dictionary’s definition of a Remoaner. And I am.

So why is it that, whenever I have a proper conversation with a liberal, knowledgeable American who criticises the idiocy of leaving the EU, I find myself leaping to the defence of Camp Brexit? For a few minutes, mid-conversation, I’m manning the barricades of Thanet with Nigel Farage, throwing real ale at the Provençal set.

Except that, being British, I don’t dare voice my objections. I nod and smile while the repute of my country is crushed like a bulldog sat on by a bison.

“The referendum was only advisory,” my well-informed American interlocutors remind me. “The choices for the voters were too vague,” they say, going on to add, “Britain should have a People’s Vote on the deal itself.”