Who loves us?
“We love Europe, we just hate the European Union.”
This was Nigel Farage’s parting shot at the institution that has paid his ample salary for the last 21 years.
While EU leaders were queuing up to be magnanimous as MEPs from the UK said their goodbyes in the European Parliament last week, Farage did completely the opposite. For a man who claims to champion ‘Britishness’, he showed a very unBritish quality on a very public stage. Rather than being ‘gracious’ as he achieved his life’s dream, he moved to stick the boot in and show petulance and a lack of courtesy and respect.
On one level that really shouldn’t be surprising, as he has consistently shown such character traits over the years. However, it certainly was a shock to hear the claim that members of UKIP and the Brexit Party ‘love’ Europe with the vitriol that members of both parties have directed against Europeans in recent years.
While the content of Farage’s speech would not have been unexpected, the language he chose to use was incredibly irresponsible. In such volatile times, when the UK is completely divided, he has given more fuel to the extremists in Britain by using extremist language and preaching hate. Attacks on Europeans in the UK are on the increase and his use of the word ‘hate’ in a widely broadcasted speech could only serve to encourage the actions of the far-right in the UK. Farage is playing a very dangerous game and this intervention shows what an irresponsible and vindictive individual he is.
Farage is once again helping to boost the jingoism which is sweeping through sections of the UK population. An example of the small mindedness and xenophobia which is afflicting parts of the country was seen on so-called Brexit day (February 1) when signs were put up in Norwich under the title of ‘Happy Brexit Day’.
They noted that ‘we do not tolerate people speaking other languages than English in the flats’.
“We are now our own country again and the Queens English is the spoken tongue here,” stated the note.
Too bad if you are Welsh, I guess – and, although they are keen on the Queen’s English they are not so keen on the Queen’s grammar. Well, you can’t have everything.
The missive continues: “If you want to speak whatever is the mother tongue of the country you came from then we suggest that you return to that place and return your flat to the council so they can let British people live here and we can return to what was normality before you infected this once great land.”
This outrageous notice was widely reported in the UK press last week and the BBC stated that the print-outs were stuck on the fire doors on all 15 floors of the Norwich City Council block of flats for tenants who are over the age of 55.
Obviously these were not the views of all the people living in that area or the country as a whole, but the tendency is something which is very worrying. The Pandora’s
Box of Brexit has been opened and it is having some very unpleasant ramifications around the UK.
This kind of sentiment is also worrying for Britons living in Spain, who are foreigners in a host country. There is no suggestion at the moment that we will face similar abuse from our neighbours about our use of English in public places around the country. However, the more these kind of actions occur in the UK, the more it will be reported in the press of countries around Europe. It is something that can only damage the standing of British people who live abroad and we can only hope that we are not tarred with the same brush.
Spain has shown that it is a tolerant country. Local people tolerate our British bars, British radio stations, British newspapers, British shops – and even make an effort to speak to British people in English when they struggle with the language. In some towns in Alicante province British residents make up almost half the population.
Bearing all this in mind, we have to hope that the process which is occurring in the UK – the rise of ugly, jingoistic sentiment – does not happen in Spain.
We have to hope that Spanish people do not come to think that we are ‘infecting’ their land and that racism does not take hold of the population here, as it has gripped sections of British society.