After 16 uncertain months of courting the Europeans, the end of the affair came almost as a relief to the British. "At least, now we know where we stand," said many Londoners, and the Economist was moved to caution its countrymen against "pretending, as we sentimentally do, that Dunkirks (and the Brussels banishment is no less) are good for us."
Official reaction was pained, undaunted, and properly free of recrimination. A more popular view was heard on BBC television, in a spleen-venting poem by Programs Editor Antony Jay, which must have startled some of old Auntie BBC's listeners.* Grimly, officials...
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