Brexit stripped me of my Britishness

The rise of nationalism in the UK is frightening and is being quite unashamedly stoked by a government that is hell bent on distraction from its failings. A government that I can quite honestly say in the fifty years I have had an interest in politics is the most deceitful, morally bankrupt, inept and, most frightening of all ultra far right of all that have gone before them.

So Lars, maybe we shall meet somewhere and sometime in a country that has all the attributes once associated with the UK but has now sadly been tossed out like so much rubbish. I will look back with fondness at all that the UK has given me in my life prior to the referendum and look forward to a brighter future somewhere I know in my heart I belong, and that is in Europe where I shall forever be Welsh/European.

Alun Jones
Powys

The language of longing is one that we have all learned

Alain Catzeflis’s tender, simple and beautiful article took me by surprise and moved me more than anything that I can remember in TNE over these five wasted years.

“The pandemic will pass,” he writes. “Brexit, however, we are stuck with for a generation – maybe forever. We have persuaded ourselves that being out of the most richly textured, civilised and sumptuous collection of nations on the planet is better than being in.”

We failed to honour and celebrate our priceless freedom but Alain’s words comfort me that in time, the joyless, spiteful and greedy values of our current Westminster masters will be as dust.
Jamie Taylor
Edinburgh

I recently turned 60 and yet it was only the other day when it hit me: I live on an island! Everywhere I turn, life is so much more limited than ‘before’.
Why have we let this happen, why have we turned into an island nation adrift when we had been safely secured to a great big continent? For five years 48% – but clearly more – of us have been trying to accept the decision, but every one of us knows in every fibre of our being that this is all so wrong and the rage is building and building. There must be people of stature who can step forward and bring this country to its senses. Where are you? Please step forward and get us back moored safely, we will all be there to support you
Francesca Bennison
Cornwall

Comparisons are odious, I know. But someone with research ability should compare the lifestyles, motivation and general drives of Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, with those of Boris Johnson; there are some stunning and significant similarities.

First and foremost both had an uncanny ability to disguise their numerous major mistakes. Both considered that the world owed them huge respect for their ‘triumphal achievements’ and that, as a consequence, that they bestowed them with massive respect. Both were spoilt as children and developed as insensitive and irresponsible characters.
Brian Drakeford

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