Brexit and COVID have slammed the not-so-United Kingdom. Its survival may be in danger (LAT)

[OnDoutside]

22. To be fair, I don't think hate is the operative word. Schadenfreude is more accurate.

I've worked a lot of my working life in England, have many English friends (some amazingly are Brexiters, despite having worked alongside me all over Europe ! In fact, one of them lives in France, with his French wife, and ran a local cafe/newsagent for years - go figure), and always look forward to heading over for work or rugby matches.

It's more of a "Chickens coming home to roost". Despite the Empire ending, there is an English Nationalist feeling that has never come to terms with that, who they are and what is their place in the world now. It's that jingoistic fervour, stoked by malevolent actors like Farage and Johnson, that has resulted in Brexit, and now they are beginning to learn a long hard lesson. I hope they come out of it as a far better, balanced country than they went in to it. Decade after decade, British Governments have used the EU as a whipping boy despite being a very powerful and influential position, to deflect blame away from themselves. They've done this to themselves.