Barring a rather spectacular feat of engineering, the UK won't be relocating itself from Europe any time soon (much to the chagrin of those who seem to want to plonk us next to Singapore ...)

Ireland also does not have mandatory ID, nor do the Nordic countries. I don't think it's as clear cut as you make it out to be.

The Irish (PSC) Public Services Card is getting close to being a de facto ID card at this point.

Agreed - it's turned out to be a privacy and security fiasco. Hopefully, the ICCL challenges will put an end to it.

England will not be less a part of Europe just because she leaves the EU. The EU was never perfectly cohesive to start with [0], and is made up of extremely disparate nations and cultures. Plus, England never adopted the Euro (which is probably for good reason, seeing as interest rates are now even further down because the ECB can't properly conduct monetary policy).

The EU was never comparable to, say, America in terms of unity. Europe had too much history for it to work perfectly - every one was on what had been at some point some one else's land.

[0] https://europedirectemn.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/treaties...

"The EU was never perfectly cohesive to start with"

You could say that about the UK - which lost a significant chunk last century and could well lose rather more this century.