Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be embarrassed to be British?

374 replies

ReasonablyIntelligent · 03/07/2019 21:05

I've just seen on the news that the 29 Brexit Party MEPs all turned their backs (quite literally) during the European anthem in yesterday's opening session to the European Parliament.

Regardless of Pro-Brexit / Anti-Brexit debates, this is deeply deeply inappropriate, insanely undiplomatic and will have done nothing other than make the UK look ridiculous, childish and plain rude.

I'm ashamed to be represented by these people and the way things are going, ashamed to be a part of a country that is behaving like this.
Everyone else in Europe must think we are dirt.

To be embarrassed to be British?
OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Northernparent68 · 03/07/2019 21:07

Yes it was rude, but so were the MEPs wearing bollock to Brexit t shirts. To say it makes you ashamed is hyperbole.

HeronLanyon · 03/07/2019 21:08

I agree and am ashamed and deeply saddened by this. Frightening thing is it is exactly what the nazis did in the German Parliament early 39s. there’s a chilling photo which looks exactly like this. All for refusing to do things for good reason but this was a quartet playing ode to joy ffs.

RHTawneyonabus · 03/07/2019 21:09

Yes me too. They are scum. I’m really angry that my tolerant, compassionate country has been hijacked by these shitheads.

MenuPlant · 03/07/2019 21:09

Yes it was totally inappropriate.

I found the libdems tshirts inappropriate as well, bollocks to brexit? The sentiment is fine, I think the wording is not OK.

All in all its totally embarrassing.

Also there are all the people from all the countries there to do their thing, the UK people make it all about us like a toddler.

Awful.

BackInTime · 03/07/2019 21:09

And today most of them failed to show up for important votes. Still quite happy to take the generous salary, expenses and pension while doing no work and then moaning about the EU being a waste of taxpayers money.

Summergarden · 03/07/2019 21:10

How childish and pathetic of them.

Never mind that they receive a handsome salary plus expenses for being there...

managedmis · 03/07/2019 21:10

Very childish

Pinkmalinky · 03/07/2019 21:11

Ahh I’ve felt like this for years, way before Brexit...

BackInTime · 03/07/2019 21:11

At this rate I think the EU will be happy to see us leave.

Dogsaresomucheasier · 03/07/2019 21:11

I feel very much the same op! Really embarrassed!

niceberg · 03/07/2019 21:11

Aye.

Kittykatmacbill · 03/07/2019 21:12

Yes. On holiday in Austria and I am spending my time apologising (and acknowledging their horror at the situation). It’s a bit mortifying, with the exchanging rate sliding the way it is it won’t be a problem for long...

timeforakinderworld · 03/07/2019 21:12

Yes. I feel ashamed too. It's not hyperbole. I dont think a lot of people in the UK understand how good a reputation we had abroad. We were known as a country of fair play, of diplomacy. Now we have elected MEPs who copy nazi protests and we have politicians who insult our allies. We are destroying everything good about this country.

Original poster
ReasonablyIntelligent · 03/07/2019 21:12

Yes it was rude, but so were the MEPs wearing bollock to Brexit t shirts. To say it makes you ashamed is hyperbole.

They're an embarrassment too. There were far more eloquent, diplomatic ways to make that point.
It makes us look like we accidentally sent a bunch of teenagers who are competing for head boy/girl.

Though that kind of rudeness wouldn't have been tolerated at my school, so probably not a fair comparison.

OP posts:
Cinammoncake · 03/07/2019 21:12

YANBU

recrudescence · 03/07/2019 21:14

To say it makes you ashamed is hyperbole.

No. Wrong. If anything, an understatement.

tomtom1999xx · 03/07/2019 21:14

The EU will be glad to see the back of us.

Grin
Original poster
ReasonablyIntelligent · 03/07/2019 21:18

Here is a photo of the Nazi party turning their backs in 1939 Reichsteg.

What a political move to replicate when you're trying to convince the world you're not fascists

To be embarrassed to be British?
OP posts:
LetThePotatoRest · 03/07/2019 21:22

No hyperbole here, I’m genuinely utterly ashamed. It was performed live, by what looked to be very young musicians. The rudeness is so embarrassing.

SwedishEdith · 03/07/2019 21:23

I'm ashamed to be represented by these people.

They're not representing anyone but themselves. "Dr" David Bull was whingeing on Twitter about having to travel from Ipswich to Strasbourg. And yet he's supposed to represent the NW. Hmm

www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/07/01/a-brexit-mep-complained-about-having-to-travel-to-strasbourg-and-was-murdered-words/

Houseofmirth66 · 03/07/2019 21:27

They were hideous. A collection of cackling cranks. Mortifying. And the Lib Dem’s shirts were horribly inappropriate too.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 03/07/2019 21:29

There was a news story about a large family who rocked up to a Spanish (I think) village and caused merry havoc. This lot reminds me of them a bit.

RubberTreePlant · 03/07/2019 21:30

The idiot Brexit Party are the ones 'behaving like this'. Not the national government or the country as a whole.

Do you get embarrassed by everything every political party ever does?

Zaeem5 · 03/07/2019 21:32

Absolute shambles and I think these Brexit fools have reached an all time low, even by their standards. Despicable.

MyFokMarelize · 03/07/2019 21:32

Totally with you on this OP. I am ashamed and embarrassed and deeply fearful for the future - especially if Johnson gets the leadership although the alternative isn't much better.
We are in a dark place right now.