How Brexit changed the British media

"If you're not hated by a lot of people, then you won't be loved by a lot of people either," said Kelly. "To our readers, we bring hope — when that paper turns up, there's an emotional response: 'all hope is not yet lost'. On the other hand, we've been called traitors and have abusive letters, and I've had people say they'll track me down and beat me up, but the worst thing you can be is lukewarm."

Kelly freely admits that he edits the paper with one reader in mind — himself.

"It might sound self-indulgent, but if I've produced a paper that I think is interesting, which I want to keep for the whole week to read, then I'm sure there are other people out there like me. We put things in because they're interesting."

The paper is now equally divided into heavyweight current affairs, and general European cultural and social interest content, and Kelly says its fundamental objections to Brexit from the outset have come to pose some sort of challenge.

"We saw the intractability and impossibility of Brexit from the very start, so two years ago we were saying, 'Are we missing something here?', and pointing things out," he said.

"As time has progressed, though, everything we said has come to pass and so many other people are now saying the same thing. Two years ago, we had a monopoly on these opinions, now a lot of the rest of the national media is saying it too. We no longer have that space to ourselves."

Kelly admits he is preaching to the converted, and does not expect any Leavers to have read his paper, let alone changed their minds as a result, and says humor and strong front pages are key to getting the paper noticed.

"I can't imagine having had to watch the whole of Brexit without The New European to get me through it," he said. "If the points we made were done in a dry, broadsheet way it would be pretty hard going, so humor is important, especially on the front page illustrations. If people share the front page on social media before the paper comes out, we know we're in for a good week."

As something born out of Brexit, however, there is one question that hangs over The New European in the same way it hangs over the whole Brexit process; how long? And for all his paternal pride in the paper, Kelly is not sentimental.

"It's never been a vanity project. Potentially, yes, it does have a future, but if after March 29 people got fed up talking about it and sales fell, it wouldn't be a problem saying that's it, job done, good night," he said. "If it was a choice of limping on and dying slowly, or shutting down, I'd definitely go for the second option — life's too short, I wouldn't persevere with something where I felt the readers didn't share my passion. But whatever happens, it's been a success."

So whatever the paper's future ends up being, and however long, Kelly is proud to say at least it made a difference.

"When the London Design Museum put our front pages in their political protest exhibition, I thought 'we've done something people will remember'," he said.

"In 20 years when people look back and think 'what on earth was Brexit all about?', they can look at The New European and understand. And that's what journalism is all about."