Pirates instead of knights: the British risk their good reputation



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The dubious hoax surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine illustrates just how hostile the relationship between Europe and Britain’s Brexit threatens to become.

Who doesn’t know the beautiful song from Sting’s 1987 “Englishman in New York”? “Modesty and decency can lead to notoriety,” he sings, and “Gentleness and seriousness are rare in this society.” Sting celebrated author and bohemian Quentin Crisp, who was one of the first openly gay people in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s to counter abuse, violent assaults and criminal prosecution with wit, courtesy and courage.

An upright person who opposes the rudeness of the world with an umbrella, amulet and bowler hat. This is how we Anglophiles imagine the ideal of the British. Fairness, the gentleman: These are ethical terms with global appeal that have shaped the image of the British on this island in the North Atlantic (even if the former subjects of the Empire, especially if they were not fair-skinned, often solo body had to learn that British reality is very different for them).

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