There was new research this week which found that British national pride has declined sharply in the last ten years or so. The number of Brits who feel proud of the nation’s history has taken a particular dive, from 83% in the 90s to 64% now, and there are some observers who seem to be concerned by this. But I say: good. National pride is a weakness and a trap. I am not proud to be British.

One of the possible explanations for the apparent drop in people feeling proud of Britain’s history is obvious. In the wake of Black Lives Matter, many national institutions – galleries, castles, museums – looked more critically at their history and collections. And although the students who chucked the statue of Edward Colston into the river in Bristol in 2020 are profoundly irritating in every way (not least for their names: Milo, Sage, etc), it’s certainly a good idea to look at history in a critical way.

For example. When I was growing up in the 70s, most of my history came from Ladybird books or older books from the school library and all of them had a pretty uncritical way of looking at famous figures in British history like Churchill, Admiral Nelson and General Gordon (of whom there was a statue at our school gates). Forty years on, my admiration for those men is still high, but I’m more aware now than I was of their faults and mistakes. To feel proud of them is also, as Tim Walz might say, weird. My only........

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