January 31st - the question is, did we ever really join?

Boris said he was going to get it done and he has. It must be a unique experience for a man who has built an entire political career around calculated dissemblance.

Unsurprisingly the London based tabloids' headlines are crowing. When I looked at them this morning Mao's famous phrase 'running dogs of imperialism' leapt to mind. Only the Independent, Guardian and Scotsman struck a more nuanced, sombre note.

Yesterday's sunset was particularly beautiful, a fitting image perhaps for a sad moment.

We moved today from Castillo de Baños to Castell de Ferro, the distance between the two is about 10km. In fact the place is just around the headland you can see in the sunset photo.

Why have we moved? Partly because we remembered that Castell de Ferro has a particularly good traditional butchers, mainly though because three days in Castell de Beños is quite enough. At first the Frinton by the Med Caravan Club rally is amusing, then slightly annoying. Not that Camping Tropic at Castell de Ferro  has a particularly Spanish ambiance, it is owned by a French couple and much loved by their compatriots. Lunch happens en-masse at noon and the afternoon boules match is a very serious business indeed.

Escape from Frinton on Med to Cote d'Espanol seemed an an appropriate move, especially today. It is interesting to note that whenever nationalities camp together abroad they unconsciously establish a shared cultural enclave; well perhaps not entirely spontaneously in the case of people who pack a 3m carbon fibre flagstaff to fly a big national flag above their gleaming pride and joy.

In past years we have always  spotted a few Swift's and Autotrails with Union Jacks or the St George cross fluttering above them. This year, not one. That's got to be a result of Brexit embarrassment we surmised. The only thing we have noticed in this regard is a sudden increase in British vans with 'Scot' on the rear number plate or a St Andrew's cross sticker on the back. I've seen so many that I am now convinced half of them are actually English Remain voters whose great-grandfather happened to hale from Elgin, prompting them to embrace their inner haggis as some sort of desperate Brexit avoidance ploy (it wasn't us it was them)!

Well, that assertion did not stack up for long. A few minutes after I wrote the above, as we exited Frinton on Med we happened upon a spotless Autotrail with an enormous flag of St George pegged across its awning. It looked pristine, clearly it had been carefully folded and carried all the way from dear old Blighty just so it could be displayed specially on the occasion of Brexit day. Honestly, I despair.

What is infuriating about the situation is that the EU never was about cultural convergence, in fact its direction of travel has always been quite the opposite - a response to the horrors of WW2 - an attempt to create a political entity that created peace, prosperity and cooperation in a continent that historically had been riven by conflict and ravaged by war whilst respecting the diverse national and regional cultures of Europe. Hence the ring of equally sized stars on its flag. By these standards then over the six decades of its existence the project has to be regarded at least as a qualified success.

So why would anyone want to leave? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the UK never really ascribed to the EU's core values encapsulated in the block's  motto 'United in Diversity'. On public buildings from Portugal to Finland we have noted the same thing, three flags flying in a row, the EU, National, and Regional - I took this photo of them a week ago, fluttering  in Seville's Plaza España. 

Of course, the project is not perfect. The three flags can fly uncontested in Andalucia, but not quite so in Catalonia, where not only is the relationship between the region and Madrid contentious, but there are also three Catalan flags in circulation, each representing a different vision of Catalan identity. All that being said, I cannot recall ever seeing the Union Jack and EU flag flying in tandem as a matter of course in the UK.  Maybe it's more usual in Scotland. Today's front-page from The Scotsman is a case in point, but it is telling that it's message was essentially valedictory.

There is an aspect of the British psyche that does not accept the notion of equality between nations. Our vision of a United Kingdom is very different to the notion of a continent 'united in diversity'. The four constituent nations of the United Kingdom are united under the British flag, but they are not equal. As the referendum result proved, the democratic decisions of  Scotland can be simply ignored; Westminster rules. The British state remains imperialist in outlook even though we have no dominions to rule other than the infinite horizons of our self delusion.  Let's make Britain great again, we are exceptional, a special case.

In this regard it is worthwhile recalling that almost every British Prime Minister since Edward Heath, who took us into the Common Market in 1972, has succeeded in exempting the UK from some aspect of the EU's development. Harold Wilson re-negotiated the terms of our original accession and put them to the country in a referendum in 1975. Margaret Thatcher decided we were paying too much for membership and succeeded getting a rebate in 1984 after a gruelling five year negotiation with Brussels. John Major agreed opt out clauses to the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties' 'social chapters' that excluded Britain from the freedom of movement implicit in the Schengen agreement. Tony Blair committed to joining the Euro, but not before five economic tests were met. His Chancellor, Gordon Brown, ably assisted by Ed Balls more or less designed them to be unachievable. Additionally, Blair rejected the EU's pro-UN stance regarding Iraq and teamed up with George Bush to launch an illegal war.

By the time  David Cameron headed off to Brussels to wrest more concessions officials there must have simply thought 'here we go again'. This time the PM overplayed his hand. The government driven by the fear of Farage went for the nuclear option, half the population and a smidgen more, driven largely by a fear of foreigners, pressed the big red button. Forty three months of political turmoil ensued, and tomorrow we're out. I have come to the conclusion that the whole debacle, though prompted by Cameron's miscalculation, is the result of four decades of missed opportunities - two generations of half-hearted EU membership. The problem is not that we decided to leave, but that we never fully signed up to the European project at all.