The word “historic” is overused in politics, but today truly merits the title. At 12.30pm, Sir Tim Barrow will deliver a letter from Theresa May to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council.

In those pages, the Prime Minister will use the power vested in her by Act of Parliament to inform the European Union that the United Kingdom is triggering Article 50, and wishes to leave the organisation. The two-year process of negotiating Brexit will begin.

So begins the last act of our nation’s turbulent membership of the Eurofederalist project.

What was pitched as a Common Market but became a nascent superstate has split a faultline through British politics since the 1970s – the EU debate generated noisy campaigning, quiet deliberation, divisions between parties and divisions within parties, the fall of two Prime Ministers and the fatal emasculation of a third. It brought us close to losing our currency, impinged heavily on our sovereign right to democratically govern ourselves, drove millions of voters to disillusionment and split first Labour and then the Conservatives. From Margaret Thatcher’s flag jumper to her speech in Bruges, and from John Major’s excoriation of the Maastricht “bastards” to Nigel Farage’s insurgency wearing “fruitcakes and loonies” as a badge of pride, it has the unusual distinction of being an incredibly dry and technical topic on paper which evokes almost unparalleled passions in practice.

It was a Conservative government, under Edward Heath, which took us into what became the EU, and it is a Conservative government, under May, that will now take us out again. This is an outcome which ConservativeHome has supported for many years, and which I have supported for even longer than that. For those – of all parties and none – who campaigned to leave the EU during the dark days in which it was dismissed as a fringe interest, today begins the process of making those innumerable years of work worthwhile. Pounding the pavements, gathering in small meeting places above tired pubs, sticking at it when all seemed lost, and, yes, “banging on about Europe” took determination and belief from many people. Few of them ever expected any recognition for their work, and even fewer ever received it.

They deserve a moment of congratulation. Not just because they won, but because they have demonstrated that our democracy and society is still true to the principles of which we like to boast. People can change the course of history. Ordinary people can make the powerful do what they demand if they gather enough support. Persuading others can produce fundamental change peacefully. Democracy is real, not a theory, a mirage or a confidence trick.

Two other groups deserve our thoughts today.

The first are those who voted Remain. As I wrote on 26th June last year, many of them feel an understandable grief at their defeat on something about which they care very deeply. For some, that experience of defeat will be made more, not less, stinging by its rarity in their lives. We should appreciate the reality of that feeling, recognise its power, and pay credit to the many, many former Remainers who have struggled to do what a democratic society demands: to accept and adjust and move on after an outcome you did not want. The shrinking minority who still hope that the referendum outcome can be ignored must be disagreed with, and must not get their way, but their former allies deserve our appreciation for not following them down the unhealthy route of denial.

The second group are those who voted Leave. The 17,410,742 people who, together, formed the largest vote for any idea, person or party in British democratic history. They were assailed from every commanding height by dire warnings, and often derided both harshly and unfairly, but they thought the issues through for themselves and stuck to what they believed was right.

Among them were an estimated 2.8 million people who normally do not vote, but recognised the importance of the moment and broke the habits of many years. They had given up faith in voting as a way to change things, but they gave it one more go. Today, many people who had thought themselves powerless will be watching as the most powerful people in the land begin do as they asked. The power of that moment to convince such people that democracy does work and that their vote does matter should not be underestimated, the opportunity must be taken to keep them engaged, and the responsibility to honour that instruction must not be denied.

This is not the end of the process. Even leaving aside those trying to wish the referendum result away, there are many more fervent debates and hard decisions yet to come. The job of unpicking the uneasy grafting of EU law into British law will be vast and complex, as will the negotiations on our future relationship, both of which are about to begin. People will disagree, as is their right and responsibility, probably many times; referendum-time alliances will break; new relationships will form, and fall again; and the wheels of our politics will turn on, eating up problems and churning out answers.

That, in itself, is an already visible benefit of Brexit. Our Parliament, and our wider democracy, has begun to flush with new life even before we finally escape the EU. The Article 50 Bill – just 137 lean words – had Parliamentarians energetically pitching clashing cases about fundamental principle at one another. Even more rarely, many voters followed the Westminster back-and-forth in detail.

As we settle on our terms of exit, and then decide what our country will look like after it leaves, voters and politicians alike will regain true control of all the essential laws of our nation for the first time in 45 years. At each election from then on, we will democratically set the policies that affect every aspect of our lives and which will shape our nation’s future. This is just the beginning.

Independence Day will forever be 23rd June. UK voters decided they wished to be self governing again on that day last year. March 29th will also be high in our affections. Today is the day we send in our formal withdrawal from the EU.

As Lord Pannick argued in Court and in the Lords, the Article 50 letter is irreversible. We will leave the EU within the next two years, with or without an Agreement.

There are those who now wish to change the legal advice from the Remain side. Some now claim the court case argument was just that, a useful argument at the time but not one Remain really believed. I will defend Lord Pannick in his absence. I am sure he is an honourable peer of the realm. This was no mere lawyer using the best argument for his client, but a member of the legislature stating what he as an expert believed the law to be. It was successful. The government would have won the case if  the court thought  the Article 50 letter was just an invitation to talks about withdrawal. I made all this clear in the Parliamentary debates we held to pass legislation to approve our exit. The court has now done us a favour. We are leaving the EU with a very strong majority of MPs supporting departure, as well as a majority of UK voters. The Act to leave the EU passed with a majority of 372 votes.

Article 50 put in the two year exit provision to prevent a reluctant EU delaying a country’s departure by refusing to negotiate an exit agreement sensibly. The UK’s despatch of the letter now places the obligations on the rest of the EU to see what they can salvage from their departing member. They should have a long list of things they do not want to lose which is realistic, and another list of things they don’t want to lose which are unrealistic.

The first list will encompass protecting their access our lucrative export market, ensuring the position of EU nationals in the UK, keeping access to the City for the money their companies and individuals need to raise, keeping their flying rights into the UK, keeping UK involvement in European defence, and preserving and developing many collaborations on research and joint investment. All of those the UK is willing to grant in return for a punishment free settlement.

The second list may encompass an exit fee, continuing contributions to their budget, and continuing freedom of movement between the UK and the EU. Asking for those will show they still have not understood why we are leaving, nor the weakness of their legal and political position.

Shanghai court sentences man for stealing shared bike. [Photo/Xinhua]

A man has been sentenced to four months for stealing a bike in Shanghai. The convict surnamed Tao stole the bicycle of a bike-sharing company from the roadside and carried it home on a tricycle where he used a saw to cut the lock on Dec 25. The shared bike was valued at 2,265 yuan ($329.31).

The Jinshan District People’s Court sentenced him for four months with five-month probation and fined him 2,000 yuan.

Tao, who was summoned by police on Dec. 28, confessed to his crime. “It’s all because of greed. I saw that the bike was parked on the side of the road for nearly 15 days and I decided to take it home,” he said.

In December, Shanghai Minhang District People’s Court sentenced a man surnamed Han for three months with three-month probation and a fine of 1,000 yuan for stealing a shared bike in September.

In Xiamen, a woman was ordered 10 days detention for painting a yellow shared bike blue in an effort to hide its ownership and keep it illegally.

More than 2 million children of migrant workers are unable to enroll in public primary or junior schools in the cities where their parents live, according to a report.

The Blue Book of Migrant Children, released on Tuesday by the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that only 80 percent of migrant children who qualify for nine-year compulsory education as of 2014 could attend public schools where their parents live.

Others had to turn to private schools or ones set up specifically for migrant workers’ children, which are usually poorly constructed and of low educational quality.

The report showed that the migrant population reached 250 million in October 2015, which means more than one in six citizens work and live outside their hometown.

A previous report released in 2014 by New Citizen Program, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to improving the lives of migrant children, showed that the number of migrant children has increased rapidly.

In 2000, there were 19.8 million migrant children under 18 years old nationwide, while that number grew to 35.8 million in 2010.

“These children’s living conditions and education should receive more attention, as the country is working toward the goal of building a moderately well-off society,” said Xie Shouguang, director of Social Sciences Academic Press, which published the blue book.

Qin Hongyu, a researcher with the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said migrant children’s education has been greatly improved since 2008, as the central government and local authorities have introduced a series of policies to overcome barriers that they face.

In particular, a national plan on urbanization released by the central government in March 2014 stipulated that financial support and teaching resources should be offered to enable most children of migrant workers to receive compulsory education at public schools in the cities where their parents work.

“But more should be done because migrant children still face a lot of barriers when entering other education levels – preschool, high school and higher education,” Qin said.

Entry into higher education, for example, requires students to take the national college entrance examination. But according to current policies, as migrant children don’t have permanent residence permit in the city where their parents work, they have to return to their hometown to take the exam, even though they may have been studying in the city since they were very young.

Although some regions started working to solve the problem in 2012 by issuing policies to help the children take the exams without going back to their hometowns, only very few children met the requirements and were able to do it, said Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the research institute.

Four months before getting his Master’s degree in computer science, Irish student Gareth Lacey got a job offer from a Chinese tech start-up in Beijing’s equivalent of Silicon Valley.

It might not sound like a big deal to a science postgraduate student in Beijing, but the offer did not come easily.

China only recently dropped the work experience requirement for foreign postgraduates, opening a floodgate of opportunities, especially to foreign students pursuing higher education degrees in China.

It had been almost impossible for foreign students to be employed right after graduation. Two years of work experience were mandatory in most cases, Beijing-based foreign students said.

Lacey, who has been studying at Beijing Institute of Technology, will be among the first to benefit.

He described the policy as a “welcome change” for himself and many foreign graduates in similar positions.

According to a January circular issued by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Education, foreign students with a postgraduate degree or higher from Chinese or “well-known” foreign universities can be offered employment within a year after graduation.

Applicants should be healthy, have no criminal record, obtain a B grade average (or 80 out of a 100-point scale), have a job offer related to the major of study and with an income no lower than the local average.

Successful applicants will be given a one-year work permit, which can be extended to no more than five at renewal.

Lacey said the Chinese job market is a big draw for foreign job-seekers due to competitive salaries and relatively low living costs.

With its rapid development, China’s market has more to offer foreign job-seekers. Typical jobs for expatriates used to be language teachers, multinational executives, and foreign mission staffers, but the range is widening quickly.

Figures on the number of foreign employees in China are not always available. It was estimated that in the first decade of this century, the number of foreigners working in China grew three times to 220,000, according to the Ministry of Public Security, which oversees immigration affairs.

Lacey said that with the new policy, he suspects there will be a large increase in recent graduates seeking work in China.

“I found it hard to understand in the past that multiple scholarships were offered to foreign students to study in China, but after graduating, they had to leave,” he said.

Chinese universities began aggressively enrolling foreign students in 2010. The amount of scholarships has been increased over the years.

The country aims to become Asia’s top destination for international students by 2020, targeting 500,000 foreign students enrolled per year by then.

The Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization estimates that about 398,000 foreign students came to study in China in 2015.

Wang Ying, director of the international student office under Beijing Institute of Technology, said Beijing’s Zhongguancun hi-tech zone had actually started piloting the policy last year and it was well received.

Postgraduates jumped at the opportunity, Wang said. Last year, his school organized eleven job affairs for international students. Each was full packed. Tech giants like Huawei were among the hiring firms.

“Many of our students were thrilled. They told me they wanted to learn Mandarin and work in China,” Wang said.

The appeal of a Chinese job is not confined to metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

There is enthusiasm in mid-level and even smaller cities.

Ayaz Ali, a Pakistani Ph.D. candidate studying at Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said it was his dream to work in the northwest city of Lanzhou.

Ali said other than participating in the world’s leading cryospheric research, he finds the local culture accommodating to Muslims like him. The province of Gansu, where Lanzhou is located, has a relatively large Muslim population, and Islamic rituals and practices are observed.

Ali said many Pakistani students come to study in China, but until now few have been able to stay on after graduation, which remains a cause of concern among Pakistani students in China.

“After all, it is also very hard to find a good job back home,” he said.

Ma Xiaolei, director of the international student affairs office at Beijing Language and Culture University, said lowering the employment threshold for foreign students serves the strategy to reinvigorate China through human resources development.

He said foreign employees will help Chinese enterprises gain an advantage as they expand overseas, and it is logical for foreign graduates of Chinese universities to put to use what they learn in school.

To open its market, China has also been easing the residence and entry policies for foreigners.

Last year, 1,576 foreigners obtained permanent residence in China, rising 163 percent over the previous year. Foreigners with permanent residence will enjoy the same rights as Chinese citizens in areas such as investment, housing purchases and schooling, among other rights.