Brexit: Patriotism does not have to mean nationalism – Yorkshire Post Letters

FULL marks to John Turley (The Yorkshire Post, November 18) for insisting that anti-Brexiteers are good patriots. Many people fail to distinguish between patriots and nationalists.

Patriotism is pride in and love for one’s country, acknowledging also that other nations are patriotic, whilst nationalism embraces a sense of superiority and competition.

In the modern world, patriots recognise the varying degrees of interdependence between nations and they value co-operation to achieve common purpose. Nationalism favours standing alone – even against others. As history shows, if cynically manipulated, this can have very unsavoury consequences. Our nationalists are what I like to call ‘Empire Dreamers’ – when the Empire actually died about 70 years ago.

From: John Turley, Dronfield Woodhouse.

THE Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said that a no-deal Brexit would cause even more long-term damage than the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s therefore a bit ironic that MPs such as Steve Baker and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who are promoting a no-deal Brexit, are most the strongly opposed to lockdowns due to their impact on the economy.

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