Good piece honestly written.

Self-congratulatory hubris is a British strength — the whole plucky thing, but the last 3 years have seen genuine doubt arise amongst a large segment of the communicating and thinking class — much as it has in the US for someone similar reasons.

I worry a great deal when the UK is self-deprecating and introspective — not virtues of the culture — which sort of invented narcissistic nationalism in the face of steady decline. Now that the real facts are hard to hide, the nation has fallen back on London and lifestyle — which was sold to the highest bidder to keep going. All that is no longer sustainable. There will be no Chinese buyers behind the Russians behind the Arabs behind the Americans — Maybe jet-setting industrialist Indians, but I think that would be too humiliating for the old guard to endure.

It is hard to envisage a future for Blighty. It’s a long way from being a Sweden, Norway or Netherlands. It doesn’t have the distributed culture or beauty of France, Spain or Italy. It really is a single city and a nation of ageing conservatives who have no idea what dream they want — and that absence of a dream has been the story of British decline since Victoria died.