To be worried about holidaying in England this summer?

[Peregrane]

As a family using foreign languages with our children, that is. Brexit is not shaping up to be pretty, and with attitudes hardening among hardcore leavers, Farage's brand new Brexit party clocking up 100 000 members in days etc, I am genuinely worried about being abused in public.

For context, I am British but we live abroad; I use my first language with my children which is not English, and DH uses yet another language. We speak in English with each other and the DC have a mostly passive knowledge of it. Even if they were fluent in English I would prefer not to change our family language policies while on vacation anywhere.

We normally holiday in the UK every year. I love the country, and as a naturalised citizen I proudly swore to uphold its values and institutions. I attended a Russel Group university on private scholarships, have had good jobs, only used the NHS for the odd GP visit while I lived there, while (very happily) contributing social security and taxes, so my balance with the system is heavily in the positive. I'd personally feel quite happy to tell any xenophobe who'd pick on us while spending our money in support of the UK economy to fuck off (provided it's reasonably safe to do so), but I do not want to expose my children to unpleasant scenes, let alone to feeling threatened.

For anyone who wants to come in and accuse me of trolling or paranoia: it is always less visible to members of a majority what minorities being picked on go through. There are people hating "foreigners" in every country, it's not specific to the UK or England either. To the contrary, I always found the UK to be one of the most wonderfully tolerant and welcoming countries I've lived in. But Brexit - the campaign leading up to it, and all that has gone down since - seems to be undoing this legacy, and people who might previously have kept their antipathy to themselves can now feel emboldened to let it loose.

I don't necessarily want to stir up a hornets' nest with this post; but I need to fix our vacation plans and I am genuinely very torn about this!

Dont come here. Britain is broken.

Where is perfect Arnold?

I can't speak for the whole of the UK, but in London you'll be fine 😉

Why not go to north wales, where people routinely do not speak English themselves and are normally happy to see overseas visitors enjoying their country.

Where are you looking to go on holiday?

I can sympathize with you Op, I'm a Brit living in Europe and i've been abused before as I'm 'taking away jobs for locals'. I think it's the same in any country to be honest

Where are you living now OP? Just out of curiosity why do you choose to come to the UK on holiday? What part of the country do you visit?

I'm sure you'll face only the same difficulties/challenges anyone comes across when they holiday in a different country. 

If you go to a touristy place nobody is going to bat an eye how you speak I think Britain is broken is very dramatic people will still go on holiday life goes on. Where do you go on holiday usually ?

It kind of depends where you are going. Arseholes are everywhere, but you'd be unlucky to come across a rampant xenophobe in London, and maybe more likely to come across one in Ramsgate (with apols to nice people in Ramsgate)

There is a nasty undercurrent of racism pervading the country at the moment. However, if you are going somewhere touristy I would be very surprised if you came up against any unpleasantness. Such places are used to visitors from all over the world and rely on international visitors. There are also many parts of the UK that are open and multicultural, especially the cities.

Also, I would say most places are unlikely to be openly racist towards you. I leave in a high leave-voting area inhabited by lots of people who would begin a sentence with "I'm not racist but....". They clearly are racist but they wouldn't dream of saying anything to you.

I live in

I live in a very touristy part of the country and have never seen any holidaymakers being abused.

I think yabu to be worried! Britain is full of foreign speaking people.
I find it hard to believe someone chooses to come to Britain on holiday every year from abroad, its not cheap and you can't guarantee the weather!

I think the op just likes visiting lots of people don't go on holiday for the weather.

You'll be fine.

I was just wondering why anyone would holiday here if not visiting family, in view of the fact that Spain and Italy are only a couple hours away. I doubt anyone comes here for the food/drink/weather.

Britain is full of people that don’t speak British, last week I was sat waiting for an appointment at my local hospital and almost every one in the waiting room were talking a different language, it’s the same when I eat out or go into town shopping, I think over all Britain is quite excepting of different languages and cultures, I don’t see any abuse where I live. I think your looking for probable ms that are not really there? either that or I am blind to it

I think like visiting any country where there are difficulties, touristy places will be fine. They rely on tourism and there will be large numbers of foreign visitors. If you want to go more off the beaten track as it were, then yes you may encounter difficulties. So it really depends where you wanted to visit.

Jeez - there is lots of amazing history and scenery. You'll have a lovely time, OP.

I live in an historical tourist town that is heaving with overseas visitors bus loads and our summer is a week in june

punishme Britain has a high number of foreign tourists who want to visit castles, see cobbled streets and stately homes.

You'll be fine in touristy places like cities.

Where I live you can hear dozens of different languages being spoken everyday. I don't know anyone who has had problems.

This is just ridiculous! The UK is the same welcoming gentle country it has always been. Of course you are fine to come here. Politically there are differences of course about the future of the country, but we are all carrying on as usual.
You will always get some negative weird posts on here but ultimately England is as lovely as ever.

I would think twice before going to France though.

It’ll be fine.

To be honest I’m not sure about Farage’s new party - loads of twitter feeds about people signing up with fake accounts etc.