New Yorker Amis: Brexit is a ‘self-inflicted wound’
NOVELIST Martin Amis yesterday launched a tirade against Brexit, calling it a ‘self-inflicted wound’.
Speaking on the Today programme, the author said he was ‘depressed’ about Britain leaving Europe and claimed the UK is ‘in denial’ about its ‘decline’.
‘I think it is a self-inflicted wound and I don’t like the kind of nostalgic utopia that’s been mooted about, that it would return to just the sort of England that I don’t like, which is the country town, rustic, beerdrinking, family butcher England,’ he said.
But his remarks got a hostile reception from some Radio 4 listeners, who accused him of ‘sneering at the plebs’ who want Britain to leave Europe.
Others were angered by his ‘whining’, given he has made his home in the US. ‘Martin Amis from New York talking about Brexit and England. Well done Today programme,’ said one.
The novelist – best known for books such as Money and London Fields – added: ‘To step away from what was a political coalition and go it alone seems like denial of decline.’