Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

For the first time, I feel ashamed to be British

I’ve seen a nasty side to our national character, and seen colleagues and friends pander to it in a way I never thought they would

issue 09 July 2016
Before even writing this I know what response it will meet. Some who fought for Leave on 23 June will be contemptuous. ‘Bad loser’, ‘diddums’, ‘suck it up’, ‘go and live somewhere else’. From the online Leave brigade who stalk the readers’ comments section beneath media columns I’m already familiar with the attitudes of the angry brigade; but aware that there were also plenty of perfectly sane and nice people who took a considered decision to vote for our exit from the EU. To what I shall say, such people can reasonably reply that their side have beliefs too, and Remain can claim no monopoly on reason or conscience. What follows, however, is not an argument, but a report. I would not trouble you with it if I thought my feelings untypical of many others. For the first time in my life I have felt ashamed to be British. Something in my relationship with my country has gone.

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