Jason Moore07/01/2017 00:00
TW
7

Nigel Farage deserves a Lordship because he has made 17 million people in Britain proud to be British once again, said a political commentator this week. An amazing statement which appears to capture part of the mood in Britain at the moment following the Brexit referendum. In the same way as I do not believe that people who voted for Brexit would also have voted for Donald Trump in the US presidential election, I do feel that leaving the European Union makes me proud to be British.

I was proud to be British before the referendum, and to be perfectly honest, I am probably less proud these days because of the result. This was a referendum which was based almost entirely on immigration and stopping "Johnny Foreigner" getting to Britain. Well, as a "Juan Foreigner" living abroad I feel it is quite amazing that some Britons do not understand the benefits of immigration to Britain. I was in London recently and the hotel where I stayed was staffed almost entirely by Poles; they were welcoming, polite and made my stay exceptionally pleasant.

London may not be a good example because as we all know it is pro-European and has a massive cosmopolitan mix. Also, I would say that the capital was booming, or was until it was decided that Britain needed to stand alone again, which will effectively make life very difficult for the City of London which is vital for the British economy. If thousands of financial service jobs start heading to the continent and foreign banks move out, it will directly impact on the British capital and dent the hundreds of millions of pounds of investment which are flowing into London. I understand that the Brexit vote was a backlash against the political establishment: British democracy at its best. But I take pride in the way that London has transformed itself into a world-beating city. In London it has been a question of out with the old, in with the new. A shame that we are now back to square one.