Big Ben bong or not, next week’s exit from Europe must signal freer trade and the end of shallow politics

Ask your neighbour if they think Big Ben should bong on the eve of Brexit and you’ll find yourself discussing much more than reactivating a famous clock. Whether or not the bell tolls has become a surefire way to indicate a person’s position in the Brexit debate.

Anyone who still does not want the UK to leave the EU sees it as an expensive indulgence rooted in nationalist sentiment, while many Brexiteers regard it as an act of patriotism thwarted by the kind of bureaucrats who tried to reverse their vote to leave in the first place. Both stances fan the flames of this melodrama, which has mostly become a mechanism to signal one’s Europhile or Eurosceptic credentials.

We have all come to rely on signalling to a rather unhealthy extent. From controversy over passport providers to back-turning stunts in the European Parliament, Big-Ben-Bong-gate is perhaps the pinnacle we’ve been building up to since the referendum over three years ago. But the days of Brexit polarisation and tribal signalling should be behind us – in theory at least.