Milan, Italy, Europe

In the passport queue at Vienna airport a young Italian girl asks her mother why they can’t join another line. “Because this one is for members of the European Union,” says her mum. “But I’m from Milan,” replies the girl with impeccable logic. “You are my dear,” says her mum. “But Milan is in Italy and Italy is in the European Union.”

The girl nods her heads. She understands.

So why do so many Brits – especially the nostalgic colonialists, insecure supremacists, frothing-at-the-mouth Little Englanders and editors of almost all British newspapers – fail to grasp what a nine-year old girl grasps: that just as Milan is in Italy and Italy is in the EU, so London, Liverpool, Brighton and Oxford are part of Britain and Britain is part of Europe.

It’s child’s play really.