“Telling people that you voted leave is a bit like coming out as gay in the 1950s, even some of your oldest friends suddenly want nothing more to do with you”
It was great to watch the last night of the Proms on Saturday. But there was one thing that puzzled me. Why were there so many EU flags in the Albert Hall – not in Hyde Park or the other venues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but in the main event? I know the arts/music establishment are of course all on board with the ‘EU is the epitomy of civilisation’ narrative.......Were the BBC embarrassed by Rule Britannia, Pomp and Circumstance, Jerusalem and the jingoism of it all? why did Swansea and Glasgow leave before the rule Britannia? After all it is Britons who shall Britons, ‘never, never never shall be slaves’.
But let’s return to the EU flags. It was so incongruous to have land of Hope and Glory accompanied by the waving of EU flags in the Albert Hall. At first I thought it must be the BBC trying to offer some of the celebrated “balance” that they boast about – but don’t often practice. But in fact it was a pro-EU group who spent £4000 buying up flags and handing them out to promenaders as they entered the building. It’s quite incredible how Britain’s elites have developed this fetish for the EU, as though it is some kind of replacement religion. In this week’s Spectator there was this marvellous little anecdote which illustrates the point perfectly – “Telling people that you voted leave is a bit like coming out as gay in the 1950s, even some of your oldest friends suddenly want nothing more to do with you” Baroness Ruth Deech the former principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford. Being pro Brexit may make you weird from the perspective of Britain’s metro elites – but being against same-sex marriage or abortion apparently makes you unelectable and insane!
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