Brexiteers may ring their bells at the end of this month but centuries of shared culture and heritage suggest that leaving Europe may be an illusion

On 31 January the United Kingdom will leave the European Union at 11 p.m. British time. But Great Britain and Northern Ireland will remain part of Europe. The values, memories and mindsets of Britons and Irish, Greeks, Finns and Portuguese – and all those in between – are largely composed of the same sentiments. There are huge differences – of history and geography, of temperament, of taste in food and jokes – but these are heavily outweighed by what we have in common.

Britons – like many French, Italians and others – often underestimate the extent to which the instinctive attitudes that they take for granted in their daily lives are the fruit of Europe’s rich and diverse history. No political declaration can obliterate this shared cultural heritage. Europe’s roots are inextricably tied up with Christianity as well as with Greek philosophy, empirical science, the Enlightenment, the nation state, global empire (and its concomitant racism), democracy, capitalism, socialism, the welfare state, classical and popular music, football, and much more.