The Bishop of Hereford tells us of his strong belief that we are “better together” in the EU, Hereford Times, April 7.

As the column was called “Pause for Thought” he presumably took himself to be offering thoughts. One was that we should beware of “retreating into tribal and class identities”. Which is the United Kingdom, a class or a tribe?

What was of most interest to me was the first person plural. When the Bishop writes of us, of what we can do or can’t do, he means the people of the UK. Who are we? Citizens of the European Union (not “Europeans”: the Russians and the Norwegians are as much Europeans as we are without being in the EU) or British, or even English?

The reason for leaving the EU is to make political identity correspond to reality. If the UK has a character--a language, a law, a system of government, a public opinion, even a great national poet--it is a more coherent entity than the EU. The EU can have no public opinion. What could it mean to love the EU?

The great European empires broke up because it was realised that it is better for identifiable peoples to be self-governing. The “out” campaign is doing no more than asking for this principle to be applied to a former imperial power itself as well as to its former empire.

Ian Robinson

Newark