Kelly’s Eye

SO how was Brexit Day for you? It looked to me like a lot of good-natured parties – which must have wound up the most diehard Europhiles even more than having to accept last Friday’s departure day as inevitable, given their fastidious disdain for the majority out there as a barely suppressed hate-filled mob.

That snooty view was epitomised by another reminder of Jeremy Corbyn’s uncanny talent for missing the mark with a sermon about the need for the country not to “turn inwards”, but rather to be “outward-looking” and – of course – that most meaningless word of our age: “diverse”.

It is the most enduring and malicious fallacy put about by those who like to term themselves “progressives” that they are somehow fighting a valiant enlightened rearguard action against the mean-spirited misguided hordes. In truth, though, the vast majority of the placid, tolerant and amiable people who call this country home are as welcoming of those coming to Britain as they are keen to see the world themselves.

They are not just aware that we must compete now with that entire world if we are to flourish; they rather relish that prospect. And they regard with puzzled amusement the bitter snarls of arch-Remainers about refusing to use the harmless new Brexit 50p, or those who ostentatiously signal their intention to take citizenship of an EU country because they’re so despairing of this one.

And finally, while not all of us are convinced that every Union Jack-inspired item of clothing is a sartorial triumph, we do know those dopey blue and gold-star berets are more prat-à-porter than high fashion.