BEFORE THE referendum in 2016 European Union flags were as rare as golden eagles in Britain. Today they are as common as sparrows. Parliament Square is permanently festooned with them. Activist Remainers flaunt flag-themed berets and T-shirts. On October 19th a million-strong army of People's Vote supporters marched on Westminster beneath a sea of gold and blue standards. This points to one of the oddest paradoxes in this odd period in British politics. It took a vote to leave the EU to shock millions of Britons into realising how much they liked it. Britain had always been an outlier in believing that the EU ought to be little more than a convenient trading arrangement. A couple of Eurobarometer polls in 2015 found that the country came 28th out of 28 in terms of people's sense of European identity and 26th in terms of trust in European institutions. Yet today a significant section of the population thinks that being European is essential to its identity.
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