My commute to work yesterday was just like any other, until I was interrupted from my thoughts by a fellow passenger: “I don’t like your bag,” he said. Looking down, I remembered that I was carrying a tote bag emblazoned with the words: “The EU is not my bag”. I thought for a moment it was the colour – a vivid magenta – that had offended him. Then it dawned on me: the EU was, in fact, his bag.
“That’s OK, you don’t have to,” I replied. My response seemed to infuriate him further.
“I don’t know whether you’re racist or stupid – or even both,” he said.
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This came as something of a shock; I’m not either of those things, and I couldn’t think how my tame bag showed otherwise.
That wasn’t the end of the criticism. I was told that my bag was proof that I endorsed Nigel Farage. I
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