I think you're reading way to much into this. Most people don't care. I have a friend from my school that went to work in the UK around 2015, even he doesn't care (he is making a lot of money though thanks to brexit so he only care that the online services equivalence negotiations stay unclear or at least not done after June). We might have cared in 2018, its 2021 now. We are ready, we do have border checks, we do have 3rd party ruling applying to UK resident, a trade agreement.

Also the quotes are from "Blind's man brexit", and if anybody is interested, this is probably the best geopolitical book i've read so far, and it is not at all limited to the four quotes.

The quote about the colony is in the opening, and what's funny is that less than 5 pages later, Barnier complains about the English cherry picking. Is this something that's taught in "public" schools in England?