The battle for EU membership is lost, but a European England is still possible | Timothy Garton Ash

With Brexit now a certainty, we can still champion the values we share with millions of other Europeans

“History to the defeated / May say Alas but cannot help or pardon.” WH Auden’s lines from the Spanish civil war now apply to the British Europeans. We fought to keep our country in the European Union and we lost. The half of Britain that wants to leave the EU was united around Boris Johnson while the half that still wants to remain in the EU was divided against itself, and weighed down by the electoral liability called Jeremy Corbyn.

If the deceptive but effective three-word slogan “take back control” won the 2016 referendum, so the equally effective and deceptive three-word slogan “get Brexit done” won this election. Even if voters knew somewhere in the back of their minds that it was too good to be true, in their hearts they wanted it to be. And let’s be honest: even the most passionate of us remainers had some hidden “get Brexit done” corner of our souls.

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