Don’t be ashamed

RIGHT, that’s it. I’m sick of all this Brit-bashing.

As if it’s not enough that some of our own media portray every single British person who leaves these shores for a bit of R&R as a drunken, stupid, out-of-control loser, now the Germans are at it.

The popular German tabloid Bild has published a damning and scathing article about how it sees us Brits when we’re on holiday.

It declared us to be “drunk, fat, sunburnt and rude” and described our holiday habits in terms of ailments such as “vodka cough”, “underwear amnesia” and “Welsh wandering hands” – although quite why the Welsh were singled out is a mystery.

Hilarious? No, I didn’t think so either.

What is hilarious, though, is that a nation famed for its love of nudism accuses the Brits of what it calls “Prince Harry syndrome” – a love of getting naked in public – but we’ll let that go for now.

The reason Bild has picked up on the trend of trashing Brits is wholly down to those sections of our media who seem to be obsessed with what the working classes get up to on their holidays. As was cleverly pointed out on a TV debate show recently by journalist Matthew Wright, no one seems to be disgusted at what goes on in middle and upper-class enclaves of debauchery such as posh universities and Glastonbury, even though those who frequent such places are as drunk and as louche as the kids in Magaluf.

The difference is it doesn’t get reported. It is a class thing. But more importantly, it’s a tiny minority whose behaviour is being judged as the standard behaviour for all Brits abroad.

I like a drink as much as the next person.

Boozing

But I don’t behave like that any more. And I don’t want the world to assume just because I’m British I do. It’s damaging to Britain because anyone who prefers bird-watching or cycling on holiday to boozing buys into it and repeats it.

They’re ashamed to be British in foreign countries because of how a few young people behave on their first holiday away from the parents.

As I’ve said before, it’s a rite of passage. It’s been going on in Magaluf, Faliraki and Ayia Napa for years – places where no sensible grown-up would want to go.

So why can’t we just leave them to it and let them grow out of it?