nothing short of appalling! Tories, Starmer et al. should hang their heads in shame! They obviously only care about power at anyone else's expense. You're absolutely correct. Only the Greens seem to have the backbone to speak the truth. They have my full support!!

Well said. I'm glad you're staying, despite all the people trying to turn Britain into a meaner, smaller place.

When my wife got her UK citizenship a couple of years ago, the ceremony filled me with hope, about the country this is and can be. It's up to us to make it so.

I already live here. It's home. My home—not in the sense that I own it at the expense of your ownership, but in the sense that I belong here, without infringing on, or questioning, your belonging. Anyone who tells you this is a zero-sum game is selling something.

So, you might ask - whether trollishly or sincerely - if it's going so badly, if you don't like where this country is going, why do you want to live here?
Simple: Because the everyday best of this country is damn worth fighting for. And because...

And it's a cross-partisan malaise. Reform struggle to take formerly Tory councils any further right. Tories flirt w white supremacism, w Jenrick and Lam making Farage seem moderate. Starmer & his Klanface charades on immigration. Libdems all but MIA. Only sane+inspiring party seem to be the Greens.

And it's exasperating, because in this slow-moving orgy of national self harm, you—precisely because you can also see it from the outside—are watching Britain tear down so, so much of the best about itself. Education. The universities. The NHS. BBC World Service. Now, perhaps BBC itself.

as if any culture, ever, anywhere, is something static that can be reduced to a "cohesive" state; as if any nation, anywhere, can be divided into true members and hangers on—an operation that is usually first attempted with pencils but invariably progresses to butcher's knives.

That the fact so many from the world over want to come here, work here, pay taxes here - is a threat, not an opportunity. An insult, not a compliment. A drag on the economy, rather than a catalyst. A diluter, rather than reinvigorator, of culture—

That the true meaning of Britishness, apparently, is to whisper behind a curtain about foreign curry smells. To snitch. To post stuff on Twitter you'd be embarrassed to let off in a pub after a few too many. To be afraid of the young, disdainful of the elderly, and distrustful of "strangers".

I'm also angry, because over the 20 years since I first came here as a student I've seen a succession of columnists, pundits, shock jocks, and above all, politicians, tell the same people that they - the people - are at heart, petty and anxious and cowardly and small.

and a jogger who came out of a nearby house retraced his steps and came back w a duvet, very obviously yanked from his own bed, to cover the man up as he awaited an ambulance; he then left on his run, telling us to just hang the duvet on his hedge when it was no longer needed.

calling 999, a driver pulled over to ask if a ride was needed to a nearby hospital, another passerby was checking for his vitals and cheerfully chatting to the man as the he came to; within two minutes, a third person shrugged her coat off to prop his head up...

until you see how readily it is bridged when someone is in need of assistance, of reassurance, of help. I remember seeing a man collapse on a residential street in London a couple years ago. Before I even managed to run up to him, a passing cyclist was already at his side...

I'm grateful, because *despite* the best efforts of GB News and so many of their ilk in media and in power, Britain is still a fantastic place to live: overwhelmingly decent, generous and kind, respectful of people's personal space in a way that might signal distance...

Bertrand Russell met both Oscar Wilde and Paul McCartney.