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!

dear me - of course you will be fine, and i speak as a foreigner myself! I would think twice about going to france though - i have never been made to feel more uncomfortable in my life there.

Come to Scotland - we welcome everyone

Even the English?

I think you are being quite overdramatic and I don't know what news coverage is like where you live but it is making England out to be some sort of war zone.

Even the English? wink Just don't mention the World Cup win in 1966 and you'll be fine.

Come to Scotland - we welcome everyone

Even the English?

Welllll

Oh don't be silly.

I thought you would be worrying about the weather (which would be fair enough).

I completely understand your feeling op. As an Irish person who brings her dcs to England every year, we were very reluctant to nook this year.

You only have to turn on the news to see how attitudes have changed.

We've booked for june but we'll see how things look closer to the time. We're will not to go if things don't look better.

Absolutely bat shit...

@SheWoreBlueVelvet there is nothing at all sensible about any of the Brexit debate and it's nonsensical to suggest it is.

OP, I'm not British but have lived here for a very long time and am married to a Brit. There is an undercurrent of racism. And an awful lot of "Oh but we don't mean you!" conversations. Just avoid the topic, and have a lovely holiday.

I will be holidaying in Wales and Sussex this summer like every summer. I am English and my children were born in London but we now live abroad in my DH's country and come back every year. I speak to them in English and my DH speaks to them in his language. Never any negativity, a freindly curiosity if anything as the school holidays are longer here. already booked back for two trips this summer and early autumn. One holiday and one wedding. Can't wait. You'll be fine.

I'm a bit nervous about my trip home too. I'm coming at the end of March...a very pertinent time...and I haven't been back from Oz for 3 years!

Will it be ok?

I'm going to visit family in the South-West this summer. I speak a different language to my DD than my DH does (he's British). I won't let it bother me. Even though we will be visiting friends who voted in favour of Brexit. We just avoid the subject, as they know very well how it has affected us as a family.

I live in a small market town and the vast majority of the population is white and English, so probably what pp would describe as 'off the beaten track' and yet there are plenty of people here speaking other languages or with other accents.

I've yet to witness anyone being abused in the street. We go about our business and live our lives like normal people. I also never seen anyone run at those funny foreigners with pitchfork and flaming torches because they come here with their funny foreign way.

Whatever you've read OP the majority of the UK is not a hotbed of racial hatred.

Buxtonstill, unfortunately people have been and still are challenged, sometimes aggressively, for not speaking English. There are at least a couple of recorded incidents of people being abused for speaking a foreign language in Wales (which turned out to be... Welsh). Not to mention Polish and other people.

I don't think the OP is being particularly overdramatic.

Come to Scotland - we welcome everyone
Last time I was in Scotland I hailed a taxi and he drove away when he heard my Irish accent

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

Please tell me you’re joking.

You will have a great holiday... people who voted out of Europe (not me by the way, I cried when the results can through, and I will wear black the day we leave) don't have people from other countries, they just wanted out of the beaurcracy.

My partner uses a language other than English to talk to our kids. We have never ever had a single negative reaction to our kids' being mixed race, to my husband being non-white, or to the language in question. People either take zero notice, or think it's nice/cool/enviable/wonderful/clever that our kids know two languages. And bear in mind that when we are in the UK we spend most of our time in heavily Brexit-voting areas.

Don't come to the UK. We are all hate people who speak in a foreign language. We are all vile and racist and stupid too.

It’s not surprising you feel this way and on social media and online news people are significantly more likely to air racist views, I think.

Out and about though, I should imagine it would be rare to be abused in most places. Most people keep their nasty views to themselves.

I had planned to holiday in the UK this summer but as it stands now I'm going to put it off until the dust settles. At this point in time a no deal crash out honestly seems like the most likely outcome and the consequences of that will be serious. I don't fancy long waits at the ports, or maybe even tourist traffic on the ferry I book being scrapped in favour of cargo. I don't fancy having potential difficulty finding good food and overpaying for it. I don't ethically think it will be fair to come from a country with an abundance of food and eat food where there may be shortages. I definitely don't want to risk abuse due to my nationality. I experienced that on occasion when I lived in London ago and while it was so occasional it didn't bother me and wouldn't put me off being the UK in normal circumstances. Right now too much anger has the potential to be aimed at us and I don't want to expose my DS to even the smallest chance of it.

Realistically everything could be reasonably fine by July/August. I know that. If nothing else I'm 99% sure a decent food supply line will be in place by then. But if it's a no deal Brexit there will be ongoing hardship, a series of small cuts and national humiliations, job losses, terrible trade deals, really poor standard food forced in by the US trade deal that's being worked on which will hurt the UK agricultural industry awfully. Exactly how this will pan out in public discourse and reaction is unknown. It could be fine but realistically there will be various levels of backlash.

In all honesty, it just seems sensible to wait and see how things go before needlessly entering into a potentially volatile situation. Especially with children. Everywhere we want to visit will still be there in a year or two, so it just makes sense to wait. It's different if it's a case of visiting family who you get to see on rare occasions. But even with that, I'd be waiting and seeing before booking.

if were generalising, the bigots tend to be in run down or non touristy areas (and are still very much the minority, dont let brexit fool you). Anywhere in London noone bats an eyelid at people speaking other languages. Alos in tourist areas like Devon, Cornwall, Pembrokeshire etc Id be astounded if anyone carer what language you spoke, what race you are etc. The only place I encounter Brexit Farage bigot types is in the suburban town just outside London where I live. Even there they're very much the minority.

As a multi national, multilingual, multiracial family we have noticed zero difference in Britain (with the exception of white middle class lefties assuming we voted remain for the above reasons and trying to start weepy we already miss the eu discussions but that particular group has always been mildly racists hasn’t it?). I think that there was a lot of media coverage of the ‘fuck the foereigners aye, they took our jobs innit’ group during the campaign but I haven’t seen any changes in people’s behaviour beyond self righteous moaning (on both sides might I add). So long as you don’t say the b word you won’t notice any changes.

I have heard of a friend's son being called the 'n' word in Bognor Regis. It's the first time I've heard this since the 70s. But it's v rare still I think. There are some racists who have gained confidence from 'getting their country back' and I think it's naive to think that's not the case but as PPs have said it's still the minority and no worse than any other country.

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

Likewise. The "touristy" areas depend on tourism for jobs etc and have been fully accustomed to foreign tourists for decades. Nothing is changing in these areas any time soon. You'll be welcomed in 2019 just as you were last year and 10 years ago. Don't believe the negativity.