Not so long ago, no one would have predicted a culture war around the Last Night of the Proms. No one would have seen any reason for opponents of the government to hand out thousands of EU flags at the Albert Hall. Even their sternest critics would have thought that Ukip and the Tory right had better things to do than denounce the BBC for allowing the flag of Brussels to be waved in defiance of the will of the “people”. For few talked of “the people”.

Other countries may be torn apart by nationalist ideologies. The practical, empirical British contented themselves with the harmless fun of the Proms. The renditions of Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory threatened no one. They were “quintessentially English”, as we used to say.

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The essence of quintessential England is changing so fast now you can barely recognise it. As Brexit descends into a swamp, as the Tory party tears itself to pieces, as it becomes ever clearer that the Leave campaign did not have a clue what to do next, populist patriotism will be the first resort of the scoundrels.

I can see how it could work. The right will portray its opponents as defenders of a foreign foe, who want British taxpayers’ money to go to a grasping bureaucracy. They will say Remainers and supporters of compromise are putting the interests of the enemies of Britain before British interests. You want Brexit to fail, they will cry. Indeed, they already are.

“Certainly Remainers are conspiring to make [Brexit] as difficult and costly as possible, all just to ‘prove’ their selfish point,” Ukip’s Suzanne Evans said of JK Rowling last week. Back at the Proms, Tory MP Andrew Rosindell accused the BBC of “actively letting Euro-fanatics voice their views, whilst ignoring the democratic majority” after Daniel Barenboim told the audience of his fear of isolationism and nationalism. Expect much more in this vein as the promise that Brexit would make us a freer and more prosperous country unravels.

The right is mining a rich, dark seam that has always been productive. During the French Revolutionary wars, the Tory politician George Canning described the tiny groups of radicals fighting for a democratic Britain as



“A steady patriot of the world alone,

The friend of every country – but his

own.”

And there were radicals in 1790s London who wanted the French to beat the English, just as there were communists and fellow travellers in the cold war who had abandoned Britain and become patriotic supporters of the Soviet Union. In our day, Jeremy Corbyn made a mockery of his professed concern for the rights of women by taking money from the Iranian government’s propaganda apparatus simply because the theocracy was Britain’s enemy. Charges of aiding and abetting the enemy are by no means the sole preserve of the right. The US Democrats are using Donald Trump’s dependence on Vladimir Putin to lay into his presidency.

Accusations of treason worked in the past. Why shouldn’t they work today? There’s a grain of truth in the charge. The AC Grayling type of Remainer plays into his enemies’ hands when he denies the democratic legitimacy of the Brexit referendum. No demand from the EU can be too outrageous for him. No action by the government above contempt. The trouble for the right is that it is not taking on tiny groups of Remainers, who let their disappointment turn them against democracy. It is taking on millions of thoughtful people who either voted Remain or have come to realise the Leave campaign sold them a false prospectus.

To talk as if half your country is a fifth column isn’t to talk the normal language of politics but the language of civil war. I won’t pretend to be a clairvoyant, but the aggression of the nationalist reaction against critics, and the willingness of the right to split Britain in two, deserves to fail for patriotic reasons. It still feels alien in a country that once prided itself on avoiding the worst types of chauvinist bombast.

I accept the assertion that your country does not need nationalism is itself a nationalist boast. “Look at us, we are so self-confident and secure we can get by without it.” It was never true of the whole UK. We’ve had a nationalist war in Ireland within living memory and we still have a nationalist government in Scotland. Meanwhile, the Scots, Irish and indeed the citizens of every country in the world can dismiss the notion that English nationalism does not exist as a myth. Yet myths have power. The myth that the English did not beat their chests and scream about their patriotism is worth trying to hold to.

After all, who is the true patriot today? The Brexiter who tries to bully opponents into silence or supporters of freedom of speech and the right to oppose the government? Boris Johnson, who wants to ban affable Europeans who contribute to national life, or his opponents who do not? In other words, when they talk of loving England, whose England do they mean? Which version of our country are we meant to defend? The tight, suspicious island whose walls are closing in on us now? Or an optimistic open society?

It is worth noting that the Tories are making no attempt to redistribute wealth to protect the working class, which is already suffering the worst effects of Brexit as real incomes fall. Would they have us believe it is patriotic to support an attack on the living standards of those among our fellow countrymen and women who are least able to bear it? If this is so, then the right believes in the patriotism of sadists.

All of us feel the power of nationalism. By definition, if you are concerned about public life, you are concerned about your nation and its future. To my mind, that is as much patriotism as anyone needs. The demand of the extreme nationalists that we must love Britain, whatever the right decides to do, is either sinister or babyish. A country is not a teenage romance and love for it never is or should be unconditional.

In the next few months, as the sense of futility grows, cornered Conservatives will lash out and accuse everyone who crosses them of hating Britain. The only proper response is to say that if we truly hated our country we would not care about the wreck the right is making of it.