Who hates the English? What! Everyone?

One of the three newspapers I tend to read, the Sun not because of the sometimes interesting failures of celebrities but because of the few good columnists. Jeremy Clarkson, Trevor Kavanagh and the irascible ‘say it as it is’ Rod Liddle. Or even the Guardians’ political commentators who are so blatantly pro-Europe. Jeremy you might not like, his style is what I would call ‘funny acidic’ but nevertheless there are great insights. This Saturday’s Sun newspaper has him stating what I have suspected for a while – The world seems to hate Britain… but not as much as Labour does’. A very interesting statement. Poor Labour one has to feel sorry for ‘m. I don’t because some of that is very true. Labour hates the way politics are practised today. There is no if’s and but’s. It is the party line or rather the party leader’s views and to ‘eck with everything else. The party faithful always remind me of those starry eyed pubers looking at their wall photos of rock-gods. So, the question needing to ask is Why does everyone except the Dutch hate Britain? As the good Jeremy pointed out although not actually said it, just look at history. Apparently, although I haven’t heard or seen it, a BBC World Service survey found that almost EVERY country on Earth has a strong anti-British sentiment. Nice work BBC. It might have its roots in the now past British Empire when we just rampaged across the world, beating the French, the Spanish, stamped all over the Indians both in America and Asia, had a few fights with the Dutch, one win, one loss and one draw. That was about who could have the most salted herrings from the North Sea but seriously you can see where this sentiment has come from. Notwithstanding that empire bit, our starting the Industrial Revolution might have something to do with it as well. As one line in the article so blandly stated – a book was published in the US named interestingly ‘The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World’. I suppose the author meant the steam engine burning billions of tons of coal ruining our atmosphere. Just wondering why he forgot to mention Mr Ford who made Detroit a cancer ridden, zombie town. Where? Yes, America, the US. So, in the end it is just the human failing, failing to get to grips with that most interesting and true statement ever made: Love thy neighbour as thyself. Just so you know, I am very glad I am Welsh. Diolch ac hwyl am y tro!