Imperial nostalgia?!

It is often said that the people who voted to leave the EU were nostalgic for the Empire, but if so they forgot the best thing about our Empire - that it was a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural construction. A way to get the feel of it is to read Rudyard Kipling's Kim - a novel in which British, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs met and mingled. Certainly, it was not ideal; the constituent peoples were in very unequal positions, and missionaries pressed non-Christians to change religion, but it brought people together. That is what is great about being in the European Union. Outside it, I am afraid we shall shrivel down into a claustrophobic annex of the USA.