NO LONGER A JOKE

A dialogue from Hamlet:

It was that very day that young Hamlet was born, he that is mad, and sent into England.

Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

Why, because he was mad, a' shall recover his wits there, or, if a' do not, 'tis no great matter there.

Why?

'Twill not be seen in him there; there the [people] are as mad as he.

These lines used to elicit roars of laughter from English audiences. I both hope and fear that might not be the case right now.
On my dad's side of the family, I am largely of English descent. And when I say English, that is exactly what I mean. I do not use 'British' and 'English' interchangeably and if I hear any of y'all doing so, I'll put you right about that right quick.
I used to be very happy to be of English descent. I revel in our language that is, for me, both native and ancestral. I am very proud to be one of the people that taught much of the world that transitions of power need not be bloody (except perhaps verbally) and who insisted through centuries that all are under the law, even the king. Rex non debit sub homini esse, sed sub deo et lege. The king is below no one, but below God and the law. And I confess to a certain amount of guilty pride in being one of a people of empire-builders, even while I know 1) native and Celtic auxiliaries did a good chunk of that building, 2) we English have acted in ways contradicting our ideals often enough as to be a byword for hypocrisy among our Scots, French and, sometimes, our German neighbors (big whup, right?) and 3) the whole notion of empire-building is under severe, hostile, and at least partially justified scrutiny these days. But I invite the scrutinizers to ask themselves: how sincere are you? Some of you may be doing no more than virtue-signalling, or you might be Noble Savage freaks (and I have less use only for open or covert racists and other bigots than for both of you)--or you might just be sore losers or their descendants. Japan still calls itself an 'empire'; not so? Just an example to make the point.
Being a lifelong student of history has left me with, among other things, an interesting array of pictures which certain songs bring up. Images brought up by two songs in particular seem relevant here: when I hear Bennie And The Jets, my mind dredges up pictures of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's reign. That was in large part a celebration of Empire with which most of our newspapers heartily concurred at the time. And the long version of Light My Fire gives me a taste of how being 'part of the action' in pre-war London a little more than a century ago must have felt, when it was the center of an Empire and, at least, debatably, the center of the globe!
But I'm afraid I also need to tell at least half my cousins back across the Pond that this is 2019, not 1913. The Empire is not about to reassemble itself; even the Commonwealth shows no sign of becoming more cohesive around you. The 'good' kids (we, and maybe Ireland, might be seen as the 'bad' kids here)--Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and, debatably, South Africa and India--are all grown up with lives very much of their own. You have done your part in shrinking the globe and making it one; it is too late to repeal the history of the last seventy years or so.
Right now a serious donnybrook appears to be happening over your way over Brexit. If an heir of those onetime ragtag rebels can suggest something, please have a do-over of that--and this time, please vote to reverse it! A hard Brexit will put you at the mercy of the madman currently usurping the White House by occupying it and too many of you seem determined to bring about exactly that! Many of you who think you lost your jobs because of Brussels probably lost them because of the reeking greed of your bosses in fact but which was labelled 'Market Forces'. That is, the owners concluded they could fatten their pockets more by building elsewhere! If you're surprised, then shame on you for all the labor-struggle history many of you seem to have forgotten.
Is the EU not democratic enough for you? OK, I get that, but work within it in order to democratize it further! Put the 'exceptionalism' aside awhile and link up with French, Germans, Italians, Beneluxers and others who feel the whole thing is too top-down as opposed to bottom-up and start working to CHANGE that!! Can't that be done more effectively from within than from outside? Seems to make sense to this Sassenach, anyhow!
If you carry Brexit through, you are most likely to wind up a sorry satrap to us here. Not something I want to see anymore than you do. Rethink, re-vote--and return. If you do, the above lines might produce rollicking laughter among you again.
London was, debatably at least, once the world's effective capital. Inside the EU, it can and will still be a great European center and maybe a world center. Outside, its destiny will be a certain Jethro Tull album. Guess which one I mean. And the above lines will be a bitter joke for at least the rest of our days.