Here I am, the grandson of Polish Jews who emigrated to Canada just after the turn of the twentieth century. But whatever my origins, among the most extraordinary bits of travel of my life was in 2014 when I went off to see Jean-Baptiste Say’s factory in north-west France which just happened to be located exactly midway between the battlefields of Agincourt and Crécy, both of which we visited with great pleasure. And these were not great victories of the English against the French, these were victories in which I have always taken personal pride and pleasure. And then coming back along the battlelines of the First World War, I stopped at Vimy Ridge and Fromelles, which are my battle sites – the first Canadian, the second Australian – in which we fought and laid down our lives for our way of life. I don’t begrudge anyone else their own histories and heritage, but these are part of mine.

Which brings me to this: ‘Brexit of Champions’: How Britain May Trigger A Political Earthquake, the earthquake caused by the UK’s departure from the EU. Had it been up to me, they would never have gone in. Now, were it up to me, out they would come. Here is part of what the author has to say about Obama’s opposition to Brexit, further confirmation that leaving the EU is the right thing to do, but do read it all.

Incredibly, President Obama has been urging Britain to stick with Europe. Two years ago, he warned that if Britain were to pull out of Europe, it would lose influence there and even here.

My own theory is that Mr. Obama actually prefers the kind of socialist regulatory thinking that obtains in Brussels, where the union has its headquarters. Senator Sanders is openly campaigning for a European-style system.

In recent months, Mr. Obama has turned nastier. His trade representative, Michael Froman, told Britain in October that if it makes a bid for independence, it should forget about any separate trade agreement with America.

America, Froman sneered, is “not particularly in the market” for free-trade agreements “with individual countries.” He warned that an independent Britain could face the kind of tariffs America imposes on Red China.

What an insult to a wartime ally with whom America has long maintained a special relationship. What blindness to an opportunity to strengthen our relations with the mother of parliaments.

Obama will be gone in less than a year. Perhaps his lasting legacy will be that the rest of us will wake up in time to scramble to safety before it is too late.