To the EU with love: a different letter

Dear Mr Tusk

I know you will have received a letter from the Prime Minister today. I don't agree with its contents. I do not want to leave the European Union. I note the decision of the referendum, but I do not have to accept it.

I cannot accept it because the decision offers a vision of a way of being in the world that I find incomprehensible. We live in a global world. I live near Holyhead on the Welsh coast. I am a Yorkshireman. Somewhere in my family line, I have Dutch connections, which means I fit in well in Holyhead. The Royal Dutch Navy made Holyhead its home during the Second World War. Local people have Dutch surnames as a result of relationships formed during and after those years. I recognise that the UK did not win that war or the peace afterwards on its own. When I was a child, I believed that my Dad and Uncle won it by themselves, it was the stuff of family yarns. I had to put away these childish notions. Some of those who campaigned for Brexit, not all by any means, but some - and a dominant theme within their campaign was the Britain, usually England, stood alone and could do so again.

I do live on an Island nation. I live near the second busiest port in the UK in terms of freight. We cannot afford a hard or any other form of divorce that complicates our relationships with Ireland.

Of course, many people in Britain feel left behind by the speed of our global world. This is, I imagine, the same throughout the EU. In the UK, we have though developed the knack of blaming our partners in the EU for our failures. In actual fact, you have been more than fair to us and in particular our poorer areas, ensuring their our common wealth is distributed to the poorest areas. This is not something our politicians have done in generations. I apologise for the fact we have blamed you and allowed xenophobia to develop because we have blamed the other over and over again, whoever he or she may be.

My fear is that in these negotiations, divorce proceedings, we will in the UK give a narrative of not wanting to engage, when most of us do in reality. I love Europe. Today for me in Black Arm Band Day.

I can only pray that the decree in Mrs May's letter does not in reality become absolute.

Yours, as ever,

Kevin Ellis