Britain in the twilight zone: How a dangerous belief in British exceptionalism led the UK to ruin - by By Martin Fletcher

If Boris Johnson’s various announcements last week – his pledge to save Winston Churchill’s statue from a non-existent threat, his creation of yet another review of racial inequality as a substitute for action, his involuntary U-turn on free school meals courtesy of the football player Marcus Rashford, his widely criticised merger of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development (Dfid) – I found one particularly nauseating: his plan to spend £900,000 painting the RAF plane that the prime minister and royal family use for official business red, white and blue.

It was not just the colossal waste of money at a time of economic crisis, or the utter irrelevance of the plan in the midst of a uniquely severe national health emergency. It was the tawdry jingoism, the faux-patriotism, the cynical use of the flag to exploit the people’s belief in “British exceptionalism”. 
 

It was that belief which Johnson and his fellow right-wing populists exploited to win the 2016 EU referendum. Freed of Brussels’ oppressive bureaucracy, our once-proud country would regain its greatness, they argued. Liberated from the EU’s stifling regulations we could “unleash the full potential of this brilliant country”, Johnson declared. 

 
Read more at: 
How a dangerous belief in British exceptionalism led the UK to ruin