A few weeks ago, I went to a party at Paul and Marigold Johnson’s house and fell into conversation with Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, a journalistic idol of mine. In addition to being one of Britain’s foremost conservative intellectuals, he was my first proper boss on Fleet Street. He employed me to write opinion pieces and profiles for the Sunday Telegraph in 1990 and his editorial comments were always shrewd and helpful.
We talked about a range of subjects, including David Cameron’s premiership and whether Boris Johnson would make a good leader of the Conservative party. But the topic we spent the most time on was the future of the United Kingdom. Like me, Perry is a patriot who believes in many of the things Britain stands for — free speech, the rule of law, personal liberty, habeas corpus, etc. But he was more pessimistic than me about the survival of Britain as a nation, assailed as it is by separatist movements at home and an EU superstate abroad.
He was sceptical about whether there is still such a thing as the British nation.
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