Why you must turn to Twitter if you want a true picture of modern Britain
Iwill say one thing for Brexit, it’s put us on the map. American newspapers are filled with stories of British misery and incompetence, and this week The New York Times went fishing. “Have you experienced a petty crime in London?” it asked on Twitter. “Tell us your story.” The horrors came thick and fast. “Someone made eye contact with me on the tube,” read one reply; “I ordered a tea and they put the milk in first,” said another. Worse: “I asked how someone was and they actually told me.” These are dark times. The other day I saw someone standing on the wrong side of the escalator.
Seeing your country through the eyes of another is always fascinating. I was living in the US when William married Kate and because her great-grandfather had some vague connection to the mining industry, a TV reporter was sent down a coalmine to examine how the Middletons really live. “It’s amazing to think how far she’s come,” I think he said, to which a woman in the studio with insanely white teeth added: “It’s a fairy tale, Brad, it’s a genuine fairy tale.”
This is us to the rest of the world – kings and paupers, palaces and prisons – and it all just happens to reflect the politics of the observer. I’ve met Americans living here who won’t visit a doctor because they heard during the Obamacare debate that the NHS uses leeches.
American liberals believe Brexit is like Trump and the whole thing is a disaster. There is no shortage of British loons willing to endorse that view on College Green outside Parliament.
That’s how you get Remainers dressed as unicorns appearing on Morning Today With Brad and Janet to say Britain has completely run out of food and water. And yet, as I squint through the periscope of my nuclear shelter, I have to say… everything looks okay. But that wouldn’t make a very good news story, would it?
When the media goes abroad, it often seeks out the crazies as a kind of shorthand for the nation’s politics. If you’re at a Trump rally, you don’t want to interview a banker from Milwaukee who thinks Trump is right about tax, you interview the guy on a motorbike who thinks Jesus hates the Mexicans.
So, the contrast between what British TV presents of America and America as it actually is can only be understood by getting on a plane and seeing for yourself, and what you’ll discover is the same mix of joy and woe that can be found across the world. Yes, we have a crime problem in Britain, but I wouldn’t feel safe at night in Chicago. And as for political chaos, France is still streets ahead. One of the reasons we voted Leave is to inoculate ourselves against Europe’s toxic brand of populism.
The true measure of the state of Britain isn’t found in the pages of The New York Times but in the replies to its Tweet: ironic, resigned, muddling through. The world may look at Brexit and the British and laugh, but no one laughs harder at us than we do. FOLLOW Tim Stanley on Twitter @Timothy_stanley; READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion