“We won two world wars so I guess we can stand on our own two feet...”

This was a statement heard on Radio 4 this morning from someone in favour of Britain leaving the European Union. It is depressing indeed that such ill-informed stupidity is broadcast at breakfast time in the context of the upcoming referendum. Is this person aware of the blood shed and countless lives lost in order to provide him with democracy and universal suffrage? And he is going to use this wonderful gift in one of the most important votes he is ever likely to participate in, and make his decision based on the fact that Britain happened to belong to the victorious coalitions in the two world wars. Stand on our own two feet? I don’t think so.

George Orwell rightly praised patriotism, love of, and pride in, one’s country. Of course we should never forget Agincourt, Trafalgar, Waterloo and the Battle of Britain (but let us not forget also the Battle of Hastings and the retreat from Dunkirk). But the sun has well and truly set on the British Empire. We are a small island nation and we need our friends. And, I suspect, they need us. What we do not need, is idiots like the one quoted above having his infantile nonsense broadcast on prime-time radio.