Angela Merkel war vom Brexit-Votum „gequält“ und empfand es als „Demütigung“ für die EU

She was the one who made sure everyone knew Greek debt was Greek debt and not European debt.

> “The UK, she says, had not helped itself by making the mistake of not introducing restrictions on eastern European workers once 10 new countries joined the bloc in May 2004, the then Labour government having grossly underestimated the number of people who would arrive.”

At least this is understood. Labours greatest failure has been thumbing its nose at British people, calling them racist for objecting. They’ve changed the landscape surrounding the immigration conversation which has led to the insane levels and cultural dilution we see today.

For me, the moment I felt the public mood move towards Brexit was when the then prime minister of the UK, David Cameron, went to her asking for support of some changes (primarily around migration) and came back with nothing. I think there was a feeling that, as the EU’s second largest economy if we can’t have any influence what is the point.

Right wing politician angry that other right wing politicians couldn’t put the working class in line

We’re all tormented by the Merkel legacy, particularly the Germans.

There is a great section in Tim Shipman’s book about Brexit that made me properly realise what the underlying issue was from the European side. Merkel’s entire thing was focused almost exclusively on the politicians, there is a specific line where she asks if it will give Theresa May enough to campaign for Remain.

I don’t think they ever properly sat down and thought about the electorate. I think they only ever saw the referendum through the lens of MPs and their activity.

This is, I think, a key flaw in how the EU and European politics in general operates, it is an inherently elitist institution. Everyone from Britain who worked in the Commission spoke multiple languages and was an experienced public servant, which meant they were completely unrepresentative of the country as a whole. They didn’t know the people they were governing for.

Now, that makes sense to a degree when you are trying to design a system for over 300 million people, but it is particularly bad in a British context given the massive class gap in our politics and the fact this was a referendum, not FPTP.

All of their focus was spent preparing for the wrong battle, rather than thinking about what was actually needed.

I would stress though, as Shipman does, that this was more on Cameron’s terrible negotiation strategy than it was the EU. Cameron made a very weak case having raised a massive degree of expectation and was always doomed to fail.