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Britain just voted to leave the European Union, exposing many divisions in the country. It showed the divide between those for and against the EU, respectively, to be Scotland versus England and Wales, the young vs the old, the rich vs the poor, the educated vs the less educated, and big cities vs small towns. Another division that has been revealed is between what Britons thought they were and what they really are. Far from being a nation of modern, sophisticated, multicultural go-getters, it turns out we are still a country of beer-swilling bumpkins with a distaste for foreigners and a deep mistrust of European powers. In his essay The Lion and the Unicorn about patriotism, George Orwell gives a portrait of Britain that many might have found outdated only a week or so ago, but which looks to be as solid as ever post-Brexit. One sentence in Orwell's tract that will resonate with Remain campaigners currently licking their wounds is: “The insularity of the English, their refusal to take foreigners seriously, is a folly that has to be paid for very heavily from time to time.” And, indeed, there are many doom-laden forecasts for the British economy in the light of the referendum result. Why did the majority of Brits – 52 percent of a 72 percent turnout – vote to leave? Many resented the fact that the initial project of a unified single market had been overridden and had become about creating a super-state that would subsume national governments, and even have an army. British people also resented the dominance of France and Germany in the union. | 
