The problem is with us. We're not European enough. We should be offering what I call the Nabokov world as an alternative to the global world. We should be stressing our cultural wealth and showing how that wealth has its origins in our diversity. Global culture can't take account of this at all.
European culture is built on it.
And I do sense that we are beginning to realise this. Young Europeans are realising that we do some things much better-such as the relationship between men and women. The USA refers to the battle of the sexes, while we see the dichotomy behind this concept as a false one. I think there are more women in positions of influence and power in Europe than there are in the USA precisely because we have avoided that notion of a battle. There's no doubt my upbringing helped.