A lesson for those calling Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 'ungrateful'

In the latest installment from the idiot age of Twitter, #ungratefulcow has been trending. The reason? Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had expressed, mildly and politely, some unhappiness that it had taken Her Britannic Majesty’s Government six years to free her from Iranian captivity. Cue a handful of shallow trolls slagging her off, and a lot of other people slagging them off.

I say ‘mildy and politely’ because to my mind, the salient characteristic of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s comments was its restraint. Most people, I submit, would be furious beyond words to miss most of their only child’s first years of life.

Yet Zaghari-Ratcliffe offered the sort of understated irritation that is at the heart of British emotional expression: this was the press-conference equivalent of a passive-aggressive ‘no, not, that’s just fine’ when someone pushes in front of you in the queue for the post office.

But of course, it’s not good enough for some people on the internet. The handful of trolls who suggest she’s not doing right by Britain clearly need a history lesson because they’re not even doing their tub-thumping and flag-waving right.