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!

If you are white then you will probably be accepted more than if you are not, at least according to a mixed race couple I know who are bilingual - she's White British but always speaks French to her children and her husband is Black Caribbean and speaks French to them. He's often on the receiving end of racism when they are here, she isn't.

Perhaps OP has been influenced by reading about people such as this charming gentleman www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/retired-university-lecturer-who-told-15816934.

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

The "attitudes" that the TV firms (mostly Remain supporting) have specifically gone out to find. Reality is completely different.

Just the same as when the likes of the BBC do a report on Brexit/Remain supporters. They always find a doctor or a uni lecturer to interview as Remainers, then they go out to find some fat/tattooed/thick bloke from some northern town to be the Brexiteer. It suits their agenda.

Of course there are racists around, there always have been. Unfortunately it seems to be the make up of a large part of the human race, which is one of the reasons for many of the wars in the world and the many incidences of ethnic cleansing that occur in some of those wars.

Coming on holiday to Britain is going to put you at no more risk of being racially abused than anywhere else in Europe, or any other part of the world, come to that.

My DD was abused by a young woman on a train in London for 'looking stuck up' and wearing a fake fur coat. Should she stay out of London completely in case she get abused for her stuck up face, because clearly there's a lot of 'stuck up face' abusers in London.

We are Germans living in SE London. We speak German with our DD when out and so far had nothing to report.

Even in absolute rural England/Wales border last Summer were we stuck out like a sore thumb we weren't told anything apart from useful tips of where to go and what to see.

In Kent you'll also be fine. Most of these stories of increased abuse are bollox anyway.

Don't be daft. Touristy places will be full of tourists.

If you went to a right-wing protest march in your national flag or hung out somewhere super dodgy anyway then you might get some off comments, but people haven't suddenly turned feral. It's mainly grumpy old sods on their computers.

if were generalising, the bigots tend to be in run down or non touristy areas

I live in a touristy area and there are plenty of bigots here. Fortunately they are at least wise enough to keep their views to themselves when it comes to earning a living.

I think bigots are everywhere i think some people are the mouth pieces

I dont think you will have any big problems

You might get people making a snide comment when they think you can't hear/understand them...but probably not even that

Hope you have a lovely time when you do come over

You are overthinking. There will not be a problem.

People have been coming to England for centuries, including German-speaking refugees just before the war.

Of course you’ll be fine. You’re overreacting.

I think you'll be fine - I'm always nervous when I go to a new country, but people have generally been very nice - whether I'm there as a tourist, or as a temporary immigrant.

I don't understand these people asking why you'd come to the UK on holiday - I've lived in Italy and Spain and the UK, and they both have their pros and cons holiday-wise, they all have their own beauty and appeals, it all depends what you're wanting to get out of a holiday doesn't it?

Don't come here. Britain is broken

Ar you always this upbeat, Arnoldthecat?!

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.

This. Racists will always be racist regardless of politics. Brexit hasn't 'turned people racist' as some would have you believe. The vast majority of people in the UK are still as friendly and welcoming as they always have been.

All I can say is that I apologise on behalf of my compatriots who behave this way.
As far as I'm concerned, anyone is welcome to come here and spend their vacation pounds in our economy.

If I have any issue with 'foreigners', it's those who come over here to specifically exploit our welfare system and NHS with absolutely no intention of contributing anything of value to British Society. Anyone coming to Britain to work and who pays their way in terms of taxes/spending etc is an asset.

Come to Scotland. Beautiful and peaceful place. Friendly locals. We often have visitors from abroad, including on one occasion a Muslim friend who wore a headscarf, and no-one has had any issues, and people often comment on how friendly and helpful the Scots are.

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

They really haven't

No don’t come. You’ll be hounded out of the country, there will be mutiny on the street, there will be no food and we will be foraging on grass, we will be loghtong our homes by candlelight and drinking from rivers.

Or alternatively you could come and do whatever you have done for the past however many years and have a lovely time in exactly the same way you always have

No don’t come. You’ll be hounded out of the country, there will be mutiny on the street, there will be no food and we will be foraging on grass, we will be loghtong our homes by candlelight and drinking from rivers.

Now THAT is sarcasm...Love it @Believability

bonkers thoughts
holidaying here this year will be the same as last year prob wetter and the same as next year
why all the angst ?
if you dont fancy it go somewhere else - simples

IME, the people most likely to have opinions about people who speak Forrin tend to be the same ones who are suspicious of anyone who has dared to move to their locality from 20 miles away and woebetide you have a different English accent from theirs. They are the same people who think they are better than Donna, down the road but also think that Jenny thinks she's better than them. Most likely, if you do bump into them, they'll eye you with suspicion then retreat to a safe distance. You probably wouldn't encounter them anywhere actually interesting.

I’m married to a EU citizen, live in a bilingual household, and we live in an area oop north, the majority of whose citizens voted to leave the EU. Indeed, I was one of them. My husband did not agree with me, but we agree to differ like the civilised grown ups we are and respect each other’s opinion.

We have no problems whatsoever living here, everyone is as warm and welcoming as ever. There is some utter twaddle peddled on mumsnet and elsewhere on these topics, it is really quite wicked some of it. As an earlier poster said, people rejected the institution, not its individual citizens. You will be absolutely fine OP. 😊

@HopeIsNotAStrategy

Brilliantly put.