Peter Rhodes: Arise Great Britain and be a new Nation

God, this feels good. The people have spoken. The people are packing their bags and leaving a place where we never felt fully at home.

After 40-odd years of dithering, we can arise and be a nation.

There are few events in history that raise the spirits in such a way. The fall of the Berlin Wall springs to mind, or the Blairs' triumphant entry into Downing Street in 1997 when even some Tories rejoiced to see a new broom in Number Ten.

This feeling is a combination of knowing that an idea has reached its time, and possessing the power to make it happen.

Rejoice, for we still live in a working democracy.

We are righting a wrong that has haunted this nation for more than four decades.

In 1975 we voted to stay in the Common Market. Somehow, we ended up not in the free-trade area we expected but as part of a European superstate with our laws overruled by Brussels, our courts subordinated to Euro-courts and our population scorching towards 70 million.

Today, we begin the process either of serious renegotiation (don't rule that out) or of getting out entirely.

This is not some rabid raising of the drawbridge or a withdrawal into a fondly-remembered 1950s idyll, the happy, post-war Britain of Brief Encounter and the Titfield Thunderbolt.

This is not a retreat. It is our advance, as a big, bold and potent trading nation, into the world.

From today we will not be chained to the mountains of bumf churned out by the bureaucrats of Brussels.

From this hour we are no longer Little Europeans. We are Great Britons and the entire planet is our oyster, just as it used to be.

And while it may appear unseemly to crow over this result, let's allow ourselves a few seconds of mirth at the idiocy of the largely London-based europhiles, the movers, shakers and commentators who are today in deep shock.

They are the ones who assumed Remain would win a resounding victory because the only people they talk to are people like themselves.

The sort of people who see a massive, dead-handed bureaucratic machine in Brussels churning out thousands of laws to regulate everything from duvets to dental floss, and somehow convince themselves that this is a dynamic, worthwhile institution offering a desirable future. It is no such thing.

For me, as I explained a couple of days ago, this referendum was never about refugees, wages or the wider economy.

It was an historical feeling, a gut instinct that Britain should be friendly with Europe but not totally immersed in it.

Call me a little Englander but I want my country's borders to be at Dover, not somewhere on the Iraq or Syrian frontier.

I know, from having friends in France and Germany, that we Brits will never feel like citizens of the EU in the way that they do. For them it spells destiny and security.

For me, the EU is just another European superstate, an unpredictable empire in waiting. Relish the moment.

But accept, too, that this is only the beginning of a long and tangled process of unravelling. Right from the outset, we must be aware that there are dark forces at work to prevent us from quitting the EU.

Watch out for those who suggest what we really need is a second referendum, the kind the EU imposed on poor, dithering Ireland to bully it back into the fold.

As for Scotland, the received wisdom was that a Brexit vote would redouble their struggle for independence from Whitehall.

But Scots opted for a quiet life by voting to remain in the UK two years ago.

Are they ready now for the problems that would surely arise if they were in the EU and England, their neighbour and biggest trading partner, were not?

If the Scots feel the need to organise a new referendum, so be it.

But my hunch is that this Leave vote will not weaken the Anglo-Scottish connection but strengthen it.

Finally, here's a crumb of comfort for the losing side in a referendum which split the nation deeply and painfully.

There is another recession coming. It may be next year or the year after but it is certainly due because capitalism waxes and wanes in cycles.

And when the inevitable downturn comes and house prices plummet and unemployment soars, you Remainers will have the satisfaction of being able to claim that if we had only listened to you, all would be well.

Imagine that – the opportunity for half the nation to spend the rest of its life telling the other half: "We told you so."

Not a bad consolation prize, is it?

We are an innovative nation, always ready to make a quick buck. I bet someone is already printing bumper stickers declaring: "Don't Blame Me – I Voted Remain."