Comics

2/10/2019 175 Comments

A Daned and Confused Brexit

175 Comments

Anny

2/12/2019 11:29:49 am

You have captured exactly how I feel except I am not male or ginger

Claire

2/13/2019 01:47:43 pm

You are not alone in feeling this. I was born in the UK and do not recognise my country anymore. Nor do I feel I belong. More than half the country did not vote for and do not want this and are disgusted with the actions of our politicians and some of our people . And we cannot do anything to stop it other than demonstrate and wow to mps. I appologise on behalf of the UK for being made to feel so unwelcome. If I were you, I would use your dual nationality if able, and leave us to stew in our own empirical racist juices

Ann Worthy

2/13/2019 11:17:00 pm

I was born in the UK and was in full support of UK entering the Common Market as it was known then. The EU has given me a good life with a strong feeling of security and embrassing our fellow Europeans as our good neighbours. Sorry this cartoon strip portrays us as the opposite. We were not fully informed in any way what the referendum meant. I agree with a lot of the contents of the cartoon. I feel exactly the same and I was born here.

Catherine

2/14/2019 12:52:13 pm

Hi Peter.. your comic strip is superb and like other comments am ashamed of my country currently, what has happened to ''United'' Kingdom and to make anyone feel an imposter is just deplorable, division of any kind is completely unacceptable.. so sorry to you and all others who feel rejected.. we have been lied to as a nation and look at the mess we are now in.. we deserve it all! Each of us is a wonderful mix of nations and influences which what makes each of us unique.. equal.. valuable and irreplacable.. I am truly ashamed of our country.. and we must have lost all respect from all other countries looking at the shambles of what we've become.. I hope you can forgive us.. not all of us want this..

Cheryl Salmon link

2/18/2019 08:43:44 am

My husband is French and he has lived here for more than 30 years, so he is in the same boat as you. The Brexit process used to be seen as a joke, but now it's not at all funny. The Brexiteers lied about the benefits of leaving and funded the lies they promoted illegally. The only plus is that quite a few people have changed their minds now they know how they were conned, so we need a new, informed vote on the final deal. If you think we should have a #Peoplesvote, to give us the chance of abandoning this madness, join me for the march in London on Saturday 23rd March.

Branko

2/23/2019 03:34:02 am

This is great. Thanks for putting it down in this form. It actually opens up hope for the future. I hope many read it.

Jenny

2/13/2019 04:24:47 pm

Wow, I love this strip, it's brilliant. You aren't alone in feeling like a stranger in your own country; I certainly do, although not for the same reasons as the racists who usually spout that line. Chin up, there's still (a very faint) hope that we can stop the clusterfuck, although I fear we may never get over the division, in the (at most) 20 years I've got left.

Peter R

2/14/2019 01:02:58 am

Thanks everyone. It's been incredibly overwhelming reading all the comments here (and everywhere else). I never expected to get this response.You're all lovely people :-)

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:35:23 am

Hi Anny, glad (and sad) to hear that you can relate to it. Sorry to hear you're not ginger as well! :-)

Rachelle Peterson

2/14/2019 02:26:07 am

This is me thank you for illustrating how I and 3million+ others feel on a daily basis.

All the best,
Your Dutch neighbour

Dave Dick

2/14/2019 08:20:26 am

He would fit in better in Scotland...ginger, freckles etc...

Mick from Lancs

2/16/2019 05:02:10 pm

Ah so my ginger family who can trace our family history back to the 1400's and loosely to the Domesday Book should leave as well? The ginger hair in the UK goes back to the Danelaw which controlled 1/2 of this country but hey at least you're not having a pop at someone due to the colour of their skin or their religion like many other 'dicks'
Like Danedandconfused I'm not angry, but I'm not disappointed, I'm plain ashamed of the country of my birth

Jessica

2/15/2019 03:14:44 pm

I'm a UK citizen, but I lived in Italy for seven years through my twenties, I studied languages, I feel like my citizenship is being taken away because European was my identity. I don't recognise this. I don't feel at home either. I don't feel at home because I am a European.

Linda Haggerstone

2/16/2019 12:29:33 am

Thank you. I was born in England and now live In Scotland. I have dual British and Canadian citizenship. I lived in the US before moving back to Britain almost 15 years ago. I am now deeply ashamed of being British right now. Luckily, I sound Canadian. I hope Scotland gains Indepenence. Then I can burn by British passort.

Nicky Yeates

2/16/2019 04:40:38 am

As a strongly remainer UK citizen from a strongly remain city (Brighton) I can only express my sadness at what has happened and remind you of the 48% who wish to remain Europeans. I have reacted by moving to Spain for now, but only because, as a teacher, I can still spend plenty of time in Brighton! I wish the remainers had been as good at manipulation as the rich leavers who somehow persuaded the poor to vote their way. Still can't believe it!

Davod

2/16/2019 05:08:40 am

This sums up how I feel. I don't feel comfortable in the country I was born in. If I was a bit younger I would leave. Feel very sad and betrayed.

Trevor

2/19/2019 02:30:23 am

Long before Brexit I've felt embarrassed to be English. Although I was born in Britain I've always felt that I was going home whenever I've travelled into Europe. Only a couple of months after the referendum I started my second pilgrimage, across France from Le Puy en Velay, where come supper, I was often the only Brit among a group of French randonneurs. Needless to say that on each occasion I was being questionned: "eh.. pourquoi les anglais est ce qu'ils veulent quiter l'europe?". My response was sometimes that the general populous of the rest of Europe feel they have benefited from membership, unlike Britain, most countries enjoy a good (affordable) railway infrastructure, good quality, properly maintained roads, far better employment rights and better pensions at a lower age.. Whoever governs this country the money always seems to disappear into the pockets of the Oxbridge billionnaires. Sad to say that England is fundamentally corrupt. I feel more at home when speaking French in France, German in Germany and Spanish in Spain. Only family ties keep me here.
Finally I've always (reluctantly) felt that the UK may just as well become part of the United States - certainly our politicians and BBC news have a far greater affinity with our former colonies than with Europe. Enough.

Christel Kongsgaard

2/13/2019 12:35:24 am

You just nailed it.

Lone Howell

2/13/2019 12:53:22 am

Spot on, so true.

Peter R

2/14/2019 01:01:38 am

Thanks Lone :-)

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:59:01 am

Thanks Christel :-)

Chris

2/13/2019 12:48:02 am

I see a lot of similarities being an Englishman in the Netherlands, except with nowhere near the volume as no doubt you experience.

Dorthe

2/13/2019 12:56:34 am

You have captured so well exactly what I feel. Disppointed!

Susanne

2/13/2019 01:32:38 am

Spot on. I'm a Dane resident in the UK for 40 years with grown-up British children. Feeling thoroughly let down.

Lotta

2/13/2019 02:37:55 am

That's spot on... as they say here. Here, a country which has been my home for the last 26 years since I left Sweden. It's not the same anymore. That's sad.

Trine Sheldon

2/13/2019 02:44:23 am

So true. I'm Danish and lived in England for 15 years. The morning after the referendum we decided now was the time to move to Denmark, English husband and two mixed-breed children. Never been happier but watch from a distace with sadness.

Peter R

2/14/2019 01:05:35 am

Tak Trine. Min kone og jeg flyttede til Danmark foer alt dette skete men det fungerede aldrig rigtig for hende saa nu sidder vi her igen lidt fanget i hele suppedasen. Fantastisk at i flyttede til DK og at i er glade derovre :-)

Jacob F

2/20/2019 05:59:02 am

Min kone er polsk, så umuligt for os at flytte til Danmark da racismen mod hende er meget værre end i London. Men vi kigger også omkring hvor vi kan flytte til da vi nu efter 12 år føler præcist det samme...nemlig at vi nu kun er gæster og ikke særligt velkomne. Og det selv om jeg er i tech og hun er advokat i London kan vores bobble af kærlighed og venner ikke beskytte os imod hvad der sker uden for London. ørgelige tider, men tak for at tegne denne da den viser præcist hvad så mange af os føler.

Jonas Andersen

2/13/2019 03:01:58 am

This is amazing. I'm a Dane in England too (I actually look a fair bit like the character in the comic) and it's exactly how I feel. Thank you so much for putting it all so well! x

Peter R

2/14/2019 01:06:57 am

Thanks so much Jonas. Glad to hear that you can relate to it.

Btw you must be incredibly handsome ;-)

David McChang

2/13/2019 03:57:30 am

Come to Scotland, we're a bit more European...62% voted to stay !

David Shaw

2/18/2019 07:54:33 am

Well said!

And if/when we get independence we'll get fast tracked back into the EU (guess within 5 years?).. and Norway has already invited us to join/apply to the Nordic Council (With Sweden, Finland, Iceland & Denmark's approval of course).. so we could be trading with Scandinavian nations (within 6 months.. prolly much much less.. is a month too much to hope for??)

I will say though.. that initially, Denmark said they would block Scotland's EU membership.. this was because the ties of England and Denmark go back hundreds of years.. bit like brothers* .. but after Theresa May came on too strong to a higher up Danish Politician.. with the tone.. you better do what we say.. she was totally oblivious of the relationship of Denmark and England, you could tell reading between the lines.. after that Denmark's stance of Scotland's EU membership.. somewhat softened hahaha

*https://scotspol.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-personifications-mixed-language-vers.html

Janes

2/13/2019 04:24:45 am

I am English, a Londoner, married to a Swede, with children with Swedish names. Brexit is ripping apart all our shared, inclusive values. It’s so so sad. Thank you for your comic.

Louise Kjellerup Roper

2/13/2019 04:54:03 am

Just such a good capture of how I feel after so many years here. Thank you. Hope you don't mind if I share.

Peter R

2/14/2019 01:07:59 am

Hej Louise. Thanks so much. You are more than welcome to share! :-)

Ryan Meredith

2/13/2019 06:12:39 am

Brilliant and sad, where do these invisible onions come from?

Anna

2/13/2019 06:24:01 am

Are you doing a print run of this? I would love to buy a copy. Great job!

Peter R

2/16/2019 05:51:46 am

Hi Anna,
Thanks for liking it :-)
Sorry, I wasn't planning on making a print run as I'm not sure that many people would buy it. Thanks for asking though.

Sheena

2/13/2019 06:55:07 am

I’m not English but Scottish and we didn’t want to leave. Whole thing is a disaster.

Robert Seago

2/16/2019 08:04:37 am

I am not Scottish, I am oldish and live in Brexit central Clacton, but I am also appalled by this hateful mess.

Ro___

2/13/2019 07:25:30 am

Describes my situation and sentiments so accurately it's spooky! I'm also from Scandinavia, so I sometimes get this "it's not you, you're alright" (WTF?), and because I've been here 20+ years I also hear "we don't mean you, we mean the more recent ones" (again, WTF?!). I've lived here most of my adult life, always felt perfectly at home and like I 'belonged'. That is, until about 3-4 years ago. I guess I'm luckier than some in that I won't need to apply to stay (I think), it's just that I don't know if I want to stay any more...
:(

2/13/2019 07:46:12 am

Hey Ro
If you do not have UK citizenship then you will have to apply. If you have PR then you can swap it over for settled status. It doesn't matter how long you have been here :(

Pam Thomas

2/13/2019 07:31:54 am

I'm English (with a dash of quite a few other nations a few generations back, lots of us are descended from recent-ish immigrants), I have many friends who are married to Europeans, and I want to say that I'm ashamed of what my country has become, of the vile racism that Brexit has exposed, and I am really, really sorry that we have made you feel like this. You'll still always be welcome to 48% of us, including me.

Nicole Johns

2/14/2019 02:15:54 pm

Although I am English, I went abroad at the age of three and returned 10 years later to a hail of intolerant, ignorant and racist abuse very similar to that which we are currently seeing in the press and on social media. I am utterly ashamed of and appalled by the country I have called home for 50 years, hurt by the blinkered, arrogant and frankly stupid attitude of Brexiteers, simply cannot understand why Cameron caved in to MPs on the far-right of his party and held the referendum in the first place, apologise frequently to my European friends of whom I have many and am absolutelyfurious at the wanton destruction and waste meted out by May and MPs particularly in her party but generally on both sides of the House. Britain should be proud to be part of the EU, to have an outward-looking and generous government, to be part of ground-breaking medical, scientific and academic programmes, able to contribute towards laws that safeguard the most vulnerable not only in our country but in the whole of Europe, to be part of an extremely powerful trading body and to be included in an entity bigger than itself. It should not have become this naive, jingoistic, bigoted small-minded nation who is going to fall on its own sword very, very soon. May I also remind any Brexiteers who intend to comment on this, that the worst is yet to come, there will be very few jobs as companies are leaving the country in droves, medical supplies and food are going to be in short supply, with the possibility of martial law imposed to ensure fairness in sharing out what there is, people will be dying for want of admission to hospitals which have had to close for lack of staff, all the laws safeguarding decency, employment, fairness and equality, food safet, environmental issues and education, to name but a few, will cease to exist, police will not be able to share information with their European counterparts so will make our society less safe and they and their children will have no future and will suffer the consequences of what they have done, as will the rest of the nation who did not vote for this and do not want any involvement in it.

Alex

2/13/2019 07:47:31 am

This is EXACTLY how I feel, and how life has been since June 2016.

Just replace 'Dane' with 'Italian'.

Outstanding comic if you ask me.

Paul link

2/13/2019 08:27:02 am

My wife is Danish.We feel very let down by this awful process and together alienated from our home here. Britain appears ready to reinvoke a sense of self that is historic to pre-1914 and no longer relevant and is dragging us away from neigbourly co-operation and shared ideals. I live in a permanent state of angst whilst feeling helpless to to counter this nationalistic xenophobia seen in the BBC news forums. Then yesterday the reports of Britain's future place on the world stage, a whiff of jingoism and gun boat diplomacy. Thank you for expessing the wider shared and utter disconsolation so graphically. England will be poorer for this.

Jeannet Weurman

2/13/2019 08:28:40 am

Thank you so much for this. It's brilliant and it totally captures how I feel! Maybe we should find a large, uninhabited island somewhere and all move there together. Jeannet :-)

Perse

2/13/2019 08:47:25 am

I was born in the UK, though my grandmother was French and my husband's half German, and we've lived and worked in Sweden and Germany. And I feel the same. People are destroying our lives in order to regain something that they hadn't lost (and if it's defined as sovereignty, probably hadn't even heard of). The meme that says 'Brexit is like having your library burnt down by people who can't read' is spot on.

Andrea Kirkby

2/13/2019 08:57:10 am

oui c'est moi... brit living in france and not feeling like britain is home any more, because I don't recognise it as tne country i thought it was. thank you for showing so well the very powerful personal impact that brexit has on people. it's not just practicalities, it's feelings, belonging, our whole identities being ripped up.

Richard

2/13/2019 09:22:41 am

Hey Peter,
That makes me sad and angry and frustrated and sad and angry and frustrated all over again. I'm English but my wife is Czech and I've been living vicariously with you all through my wife's generally hellish experiences in the last 2 1/2 years.
I hope things will improve and that the open-hearted and open-minded prevail.
Be well, friend.
All the best,
Richard

Dave

2/13/2019 09:31:08 am

I'm as English as they come, and you've completely captured my feelings on Brexit. I'm so sorry that so many of my countrymen and women have made you all feel unwelcome. Truth be told I don't recognise my country any more. There are times that I feel like an unwelcome guest too since I found out that 52% of my fellow British are either navegazing fools, closet bigots, or both. I want my country back; back from them. I'm sorry.

Stuart Adams

2/13/2019 09:41:21 am

It makes me so angry and so embarrassed that this can have happened in this country. I'm so so sorry.

Marcus de Mowbray

2/13/2019 09:53:21 am

Excellent.

Melanie Wilberforce

2/13/2019 09:57:03 am

I feel exactly the same only I am a British person who has lived elsewhere in Europe for over half my life. Britain doesn't truly feel like home anymore but wherever I live people won't consider me to be local either. I basically don't "fit" anywhere anymore.

Spike

2/13/2019 09:59:56 am

It feels awful from the other side too: that the country I thought of as a bit quirky but solidly forward-thinking was, in fact, a boiling pot of intolerance and ignorance. You’ve lost your second home but I’ve lost my first and, because of this, anywhere else will view me with a wary regard. Am I one of ‘them’...? It’s a tragedy for this country that was doing so well. It’s a mess and I’m ashamed to call myself British anymore. I’m sorry for how all our EU friends feel. I’m so, so sorry.

2/14/2019 02:08:27 pm

I agree Spike - you've put into words how I feel about this whole sorry affair. I woke up on June 24th wondering who had taken over the country - all these aliens who had fallen for the lies peddled by Boris and Farage and the Daily Hate. Two years on and I'm simply ashamed and appalled at the politicians who are "running" the process. Every time I hear the words "Will of the People" I say to myself "Will of SOME of the People"! So so sad.

Alison

2/13/2019 10:23:59 am

I'm with Pam and Dave above - embarrassed to be British, hating what's happened in this country and so very sad about the awful treatment of our European friends.

sarah link

2/13/2019 10:25:00 am

This captures it perfectly for me, the sadness, the loss, the rage, the feelings of being other. It's perfect. It made me cry

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:56:38 am

Thanks so much Sarah - sorry to make you cry though :-(

Enna

2/13/2019 10:30:56 am

I am French been here for 30 years and this is exactly how I feel. I know I don't belong here anymore, don't really belong in France either. The lack of reciprocal agreement has made a return impossible now. The sad thing Brexiteers have trapped most of us in England in their wish to get rid of us.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:55:46 am

Yes, that is very much the situation I'm in too.

Helen De Cruz

2/13/2019 11:16:48 am

Hi, this expresses how I feel too - as written here https://medium.com/@helenldecruz/a-brexit-grief-observed-1b9851bef867

Martin

2/13/2019 11:33:22 am

This brought tears to my eyes. Thank you from a fellow mixed eu27 migrant

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:53:12 am

Sorry for making you cry but also thanks. I'm really pleased so many people can relate to this.

Ulaf

2/13/2019 12:06:17 pm

The retorics of good and bad europeans is disgusting. I've heard it several time as well, and it has a name: racism.

Christina

2/13/2019 01:18:16 pm

Thanks for putting into words my feelings of sadness and disappointment (bordering on betrayal). My in laws have both voted for Brexit and none of them understand why I, my husband and my son are upset as "nothing will change" and "it's not gonna be that bad". And for what? No one knows.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:52:24 am

Thanks so much Christina. Ah yes, those comments sound so familiar - it's so frustrating to hear. Sorry to hear that - so pointless....

Jelena Adams

2/14/2019 12:46:19 pm

Yes, my in laws voted for brexit too, and all of their children are really upset about it and my husband has had numerous arguments with them over these 2 years and they still won't accept that it was a mistake. I don't know what their real reason was, but I feel very unwelcome here too ever since, having lived here 13 years..:(

Amelia Crowley

2/13/2019 02:54:42 pm

I am so sorry.

I am so sorry our countrymen did this.
I'm sorry they fell for such wretched, despicable lies.
I'm sorry that the need to find a scapegoat in adversity, and the desire to go back to the imagined perfection of childhood, and the venality and xenophobia of those leading the charge have conspired to bring this horrible situation down upon us.

They say they want their country back.
This is no longer the country *I* knew as a child.
That was a place of hope.
This is a country full of fear and hate.

I am so very sorry.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:50:53 am

Thanks Amelia, that's a great poem :-)

Ziggy Woodward

2/14/2019 01:25:55 am

Hello Amelia - this is exactly how i feel, but have been unable to articulate. Would you mind if i copied and shared them?

Amelia Crowley

2/14/2019 05:02:46 am

Not at all, Ziggy.

Line

2/13/2019 03:00:46 pm

I am Danish, Scandinavian and European - feel sooooo much like the guy in the cartoon. I have Lived in the Uk for 18 years but the last few years has been nothing short of exhausting - I feel baffled and vilified by incompetence, ignorance and arrogance on a daily basis. I will have to contemplate moving - how can i stay in the UK having lost all respect for what is going on around me? It is just all so surreal.

Caroline Pesch

2/13/2019 03:10:22 pm

I’m Caroline and I’m from Luxembourg. I moved to London 18 years ago. You wrote my story and how I feel exactly. Thanks Dan.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:49:40 am

Thanks Caroline. Glad, and sad, to hear that it is so relatable.

Anja

2/13/2019 04:04:07 pm

Brilliant! This is exactly how I feel.

Gareth

2/13/2019 11:44:52 pm

I'm so sorry. I'm British and am appauled as to the darkness descending on the UK. Like others here I feel that I haven't left my country. My country has left me. But I have no other home.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:48:31 am

Thanks so much Anja, really pleased so many people can relate to this.

David Kinnaird

2/13/2019 10:32:12 pm

Christ that’s exactly how I feel and I’m British. It’s like the country I thought I new has just been taken away. Thanks for expressing your feelings like this and let’s hope we can both get our country back.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:47:26 am

Thanks David, really happy so many people can relate to this.

Michelle Parlett

2/13/2019 11:09:14 pm

I'm British, but left in 2008 to live in Germany. I fell in love with an American who worked with the US military in Germany, having retired from the USAF there in 1995, aaaand mixed top be with him. We actually married in Denmark in 2010, on Ærœ.

Anyway. In 2013 we moved to Florida. I've spent the last 4 years horrified and disgusted by my own country and by the USA. I'm already screwed up, I was born in England but grew up in the Scottish Highlands. We moved right around the time of the first independence referendum. It was definitely fraught, being 5 years old and English in a small town. I ended up feeling more Scottish than anything else; still do.

So, this feeling of dislocation, of guilt for being 'other', is something with which I'm very familiar. I hate that all this Brexit bullcrap is hurting so many people. It's a bloody stupid idea that should have been shouted down before fully realised. Senseless, outdated Jingoism, little Englander rubbish.

I feel even less at home in the USA. I think if I could live anywhere, I'd rather like to return to Germany. It's where I've been happiest.

I hate all this uncertainty. I really just want Brexit to go away, and take Trump with it.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:43:26 am

Thanks for sharing your story, Michelle. It's one big mess :-(

Ærø is lovely place by the way.

Luke Hearn

2/13/2019 11:37:15 pm

I’m entirely English and yet I still feel exactly this way. I don’t FEEL English any more. I don’t recognise this country. I wish I had a valuable passport instead of a document that will be near useless after this march. So ashamed.

Ross

2/14/2019 12:14:17 am

I was born in the UK, to British parents, I’ve lived here all my life and so I “have nothing to worry about” but it doesn’t even feel like *my* home at the moment.

This is not a country I’m proud to be associated with. Nor one I’m sure I want to remain in after Brexit.

For not only have I always been a British citizen, I’ve also always been an EU Citizen and whilst some of the Brexit voters feel they’re getting something “back” - I, and everyone I know, are having something taken away.

Something that meant more to me than being British.

David

2/14/2019 12:36:11 am

Brilliant piece.
You, like the majority in Scotland are European, we don't want to leave, we want to stay as part of the family of nations that make up the EU. Like most families we're not perfect, we sometimes argue and fall out, we don't always want the same things, but we do want what is best for all our family, and that's working together for the common good.
We don't believe in Brexit, we don't believe the lies and half truths that Leave told us, or think that that storming off in the huff dreaming about the "great" days of being an only child, the biggest kid on the block that went around stealing everyone else's lunch and making them call us Emperor will end in anything other than heartache and disappointment. Thankfully the days of Empire are gone and we do not want them back.

So if you're not welcome where you are, come to Scotland, we will make you feel welcome and help you build a new home, with friends who will never stop trying to make a fair and open society where we only look down on someone to offer them our hand in solidarity as we lift them back up.
So do not leave, come to Scotland and help us become a free and independent Scotland within the EU and Europe

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:44:55 am

Thanks!
My British wife and I often talk about moving to Scotland so you'll never know - we love it up there :-)

Jelena Adams

2/14/2019 12:53:43 pm

I keep telling my husband we should move to Scotland, it seems like so much nicer place to live in. I don't really feel like living in UK anymore either, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to convince my husband to move, as much as he hates this mess and is upset about what is happening to the country.
He is worried though that he would be hated in Scotland for being English. :(

Nigel (Snigel) link

2/14/2019 12:44:32 am

I’m English, white and male. Not a ginger. And this is how I feel too. Unwelcome and despised. I’m a musician. I’m disabled. And therefore unwelcome and unwanted.
Thank you for this. It’s amazing.

Peter R

2/14/2019 12:46:10 am

Thank you so much. Sorry to hear that you have other battles of your own.

Mike N

2/14/2019 01:26:58 am

Thank you for your comic - it sums up how I feel too. Although I'm English I feel marginalised, and I've never been so fearful about the future as I am now. It looks like the country I grew up in is being destroyed before our very eyes.

Phil link

2/14/2019 01:30:59 am

reaffirms everything I have come to believe over the last couple of years

Kevin

2/14/2019 01:31:52 am

You hit the nail on the head with this one. But having worked in Denmark for a good while, I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would move here. The weather perhaps? No, it's the same... The culture perhaps? I don't think so. I was born here, but luckily for me, my father was Irish, so I get to keep a European Passport, but my other half, bless her, doesn't have that option, and despite her being a French and German teacher (and having a double-first class honours degree in both), unless this nonsense is cancelled, we won't be able to move to France, as we had planned to, when we retire, I heartily loathe the average Brexiteer, of whom there are way too many, and would like nothing better to leave them to their ignorant isolation and watch from a safe distance as the country they 'got back' descends into dumbocracy/ But I am denied that choice.

Annette

2/14/2019 01:40:35 am

It's so very true. The one thing that is different for me is that I live in Scotland and it still feels like home. And it makes me furious, because England is doing this to us.

You are so right about being neither this nor that and at the same time being both. And I feel many people simply cannot understand people with complex identities. I get well-meaning folk telling me, "You're as Scottish as the rest of us," but that's not true. Unlike them, I am Scottish and German, and I'm a straight-forward case compared to some other people I know. People, entire families, with kaleidoscope cultural heritage, fluent in several languages. In the 21st century, this is increasingly common and you'd think it would be considered an asset in every way, but we have a Prime Minister who calls us "Citizens of Nowhere."

Morgwn Davies

2/14/2019 02:00:53 am

Well congratulations you are indeed after 18 years, fully English. In that you think that only England makes up the UK. That Brexit really means Enexit. If only that were true and Scotland was remaining. When Scotland is independent again, or before, you could come and live here.

Peter R

2/14/2019 10:39:40 am

Hi Morgwn. Sorry if this is your main take-a-away from this piece. I don't think that but in my mind I didn't move to the UK, I moved to England, but I am fully aware of how things work here but I think you know that. I'm also aware that Scotland and Wales voted to stay so I have no beef with them. The flag used to tell immigrants to scram I saw was the English flag. Had it been scottish I would have drawn a scottish flag but I am yet to see that. It seems that the nastiest people around uses the English flag when they're being rude to "the other".
If I could I'd move to Scotland tomorrow (if I'm still welcome). If anything, your flag is much easier to draw than the Union Jack which is a pain.

Sorry if you felt so offended by this that you had to tell me. No harm meant.

Jackie

2/14/2019 02:19:37 am

I am British, married to a Greek, living in Greece over 30 years. Even my own parents voted to leave based on The Daily Mail, The Sun and bus adverts. I wasn't allowed a vote, no Brit living in EU for more than 15yrs, was given the right to vote on something that greatly affects them. This is something I do not understand. When questioned, my parents said 'It's not about you and the kids (hubby), it's about those immigrants (yes I know I'm one) you know the Muslims and the Eastern Europeans. I can't speak to my parents about this as they cannot understand how I feel and refuse to listen. They are 76yrs old, they have made decisions to change our lives. Forever.

Phil

2/14/2019 02:51:08 am

This is a great piece of work. I'm English, and my family has been since at least 1850. My wife is half-Hungarian (no "Open All Hours" jokes, please).
I want to tell you how stateless I feel now. May said we were citizens of nowhere, and she's gone out of her way to make that a reality. I know the Brexitters wanted their country back (although I'm not sure where they thought it had been hidden), but in the effort to reclaim it, why did they have to take away mine?

I used to be proud to be British. Now I'm ashamed.

charles

2/14/2019 02:54:08 am

Very nicely done - with, indeed (what the British like to think as) British understatement.

Frans Wilbrink

2/14/2019 03:13:29 am

Not Danish myself, but the other D-word: Dutch and your cartoon is very very recognisable.. we have been here 15 years and our girls are born an raised here.. yesterday when we had to call an ambulance for our elderly neighbour the crew asked where we were from.. this innocent question now felt very different than 2 years ago... and we live in the mostly remain Thames valley.. I cannot imagine our fellow EU folk who live in heavy leave area's... such a shame that all these lies and hidden agenda's have ripped up this beautiful country..

Pierre

2/14/2019 04:05:45 am

Absolutely spot on Peter.
I have lived in the UK for 21 years, my family is British and this is exactly how I feel.
Have had to make the decision to apply for British citizenship. That way, I can have a voice in this country moving forward.
Best wishes to you.
From another citizen of nowhere.

Danny

2/14/2019 04:16:12 am

I came to the UK when I was 4. My mum and sister still live in London. My sister was born here. But last year I just could not take it anymore. I left the UK after 45 years. I am lost but I can't handle the xenophobia. Seeing someone close beaten up on the street because they were 'foreign' was the last straw. I took up German citizenship last year and live in Berlin. I feel homeless and homesick all at once. Brexit feels like bereavement. I worry about my mother who is scared and elderly and remembers what Germany was like before she fled as a child. I feel too old to start again, but I don't see any other option.

Dave

2/14/2019 05:03:06 am

Wonderfully done :) Sums it up very well (and it has pictures, which always makes things easier).
Born in the UK and an EU Citizen, which soon, I might not be.... So annoyed the Government is just basically, "messing around"

Guy

2/14/2019 05:10:50 am

Awful lot of hand wringing rubbish in these comments. Leaving the European Union is the greatest opportunity this county has had in a generation. Countless trade deals the EU has done with other countries has proven you don't need to be part of the bureaucratic juggernaut to benefit from the single market.

And the nonsense about losing your identities? Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany etc are still there. Nothing is changing. Its just a super-national organisation, I can't imagine you would be crying if we left NATO or the World Bank, get a grip.

Line

2/14/2019 07:09:48 am

Wonderful joke Guy - you win the price for best Brexiter stereotype display. I very few words you have manged to rubbish everyone’s point of view, thrown in a windbag statement fit for a bus, told us all that what we feel is nonsense rounded off with a Brexit - NATO/World Bank parallel which displays a wonderful level of stupidity. Absolutely super – PR should cartoon this, though you should have 52% of the royalties.

Guy

2/14/2019 08:40:09 am

I suppose it is is stupid to compare the EU to NATO, NATO is far more important having kept the peace in Europe since 1949.

For the UK the great European project has never been about idealistic notions of identity politics. It's about cold hard cash. And I sincerely believe we can make more of it outside a shrinking protectionist trading bloc than in.

European leaders (National governments, not Brussels) also know their citizens will not tolerate a drop in living standards just to save face on some vague notion of European unity, which is why eventually a compromise will be made and a deal done which will satisfy both the EU and UK. Governments across Europe have quietly being guaranteeing visa free travel to UK citizens in Europe and visa-versa. All this talk of 'feeling like foreigners in our own country' is, frankly, bollocks. Life will go on as it has before.

Sam

2/14/2019 07:29:16 am

Try thinking about the reasons why Nissan, Honda, Toyota and others have invested in the UK ......and why they won't in the future

Guy

2/14/2019 08:49:14 am

Part of the reason they came here was for access to the Single Market. Another part of was our liberal economy and skilled work force.

The UK is not defined by our membership of the EU. Since the vote the value of the pound has fallen, encouraging international investment. A small change in the value of a currency can wipe out any benefits or pitfalls of a tariff system.

It's important to note the countries of the Euro don't have the option of fluctuations in currency, which is why southern Europe has stagnated. It's easy to pontificate about the benefits of Europe from the stability of the UK , I think if you were a Greek youth where unemployment is 40% you may have a different position.

Peter R

2/14/2019 10:46:30 am

Thanks for your comment. At no point am I pretending that EU is perfect because it really isn't. I think that most people commenting here knows that and I am sure that all the other remainers out there know that too. My piece is about how I feel (and quite clearly many other feels) and especially how the rhetoric that has surfaced because of Brexit affects people. It's nasty name calling and blaming everyone, not just foreigners, for everything that is wrong in the world. The poor, the old, the disabled, people on benefits, snowflakes etc etc.
Who knows, maybe Brexit is the best thing that ever happened and we can all move on. What I can't move on from is the all the horrible crap I have seen and had thrown at me and people around me.
If we had a competent Parliament I might be more positive, but none of the parties are fit to deliver this.

Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts. But disagree. Have a nice evening.
Peter

Chloe

2/19/2019 12:14:31 pm

Sorry, but this response is completely and utterly tone-deaf.

Brexit is not simply about economics and policy. For both sides, it has become a symbol. The feelings it has invoked in large parts of the UK population, and beyond your borders, are powerful and dangerous.

By the way... Obviously you don't seem to care much... But even if there is no economic impact on Britain whatsoever (almost inconceivable) a no-deal Brexit will have an immediate, tangible, sharply negative effect on millions of people's lives. Myself included. And I am not even British. This is 100% certain and undeniable; it is simply fact. You have palpably worsened millions of people's lives.

We will not forget and we will not forgive.

Sam

2/14/2019 06:54:23 am

I am English but live in another EU country. I am ASHAMED to be English and this feeling has increased daily since the referendum. I could laugh at your comic strip but it is just too true and you raise a lot of points that I have discussed with my partner; particularly the 'getting back' part. It is like getting back with an old girlfriend.....best avoided because if it was that good you wouldn't have moved on in the first place. I felt European for years, but now I am going to be feeling rootless and insecure, like many ex pats in the UK.

Trish

2/14/2019 06:54:26 am

Wow 😮 nice cartoons - I wish I could draw like that - very good story. Me too, my Celtic freckles look English enough 😀

Heather

2/14/2019 07:29:50 am

Perfect depiction of this pointless, draining waste of time.
The entire situation is embarrassing.
I refuse to use the stupid B word which sounds like an unyielding brand of toilet paper.

Bert Molendijk

2/14/2019 07:47:29 am

Hello Peter, I am Dutch and living in the UK, and I agree completely with the premiss of your comic. I posted a link on my Facebook to see if any of my British friends will react. Your story did cheer me up a bit, just some antidote for my BRD = Brexit Related Depression.

Bryan Wood

2/14/2019 10:57:04 am

Thank you, Bert I'm British, refuse to be English - I'm also European and proud to be. This comic strip sums up Brexit - and it saddens me that 'my' countrymen think it right to treat anyone of any 'other' nation in such an appalling way. But, the real reason for my reply is that you have put a name to the way I've felt for the past 2+ years: BRD.

Carmine

2/14/2019 08:10:39 am

Brilliantly put Peter. You sum up perfectly what a lot of us are feeling right now. I myself am Italian and lived in UK for 58 of my 60 years and pre referendum would have described myself as “Britalian” and claimed the best of both worlds. However since the referendum I feel less British than ever! Very sad

Diana

2/14/2019 10:16:25 am

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I was born in the UK, but am the child of immigrants one way or another, as are the majority of Brits, were they to be honest. I'm so horrified, ashamed and appalled at the way this country has changed and how people like you who have made a home here are being treated. It is unfair, unjust and unreasonable and there is not a goddamn thing people like me can do about it and it is so awful. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Josephine Fowler

2/14/2019 10:31:58 am

I feel the same, well apart from it not being my home because I have no other.

I feel angry, sad and disappointed too.

I am also not male, well not any more. :)

Bryan Wood

2/14/2019 10:59:08 am

Thank you, Peter. A brilliant article/comic strip. From this Brit, at least, welcome; may your stay here continue...

Perot Bonfill i Pitarch

2/14/2019 11:10:47 am

Thank you for sharing your feelings. I'm a Catalan resident in Scotland, luckily. I feel I'm much more welcome here that I would be down south.
Anyway, I feel this whole Brexit thing is such a nonsensical waste of time and resources.
Some people have planned this very well, and they are going to benefit a lot from it as the country suffers an economic crisis.

Ruth

2/14/2019 02:44:21 pm

I’m so sorry. Your comic made me cry. I apologise for my fuckwit compatriots who have made you feel unwelcome and unwanted. I can’t begin to understand the mentality that has led us here.

Prof. Thilo Gross

2/14/2019 08:39:51 pm

This is exactly how I feel. I left a few months ago after 8 years in Bristol. Still miss the place. So sad.

Brenda

2/15/2019 01:09:34 am

Thank you for your comic and your thoughts. I voted ‘remain’.

Michael

2/15/2019 02:23:48 am

Thanks for creating this. Summed up my feelings 100%. Also a nice place to signpost anyone who knows me "as just another person" without realizing I'm a citizen of nowhere (or everywhere...). Very nearly 30 years in the UK, more than half my life, Started referring to UK as "Home" perhaps 15 years ago, now, after 30 years living "somewhere else" I inadvertently refer to Denmark as "home" again. "English Kids" (who loves visiting Denmark) are still growing up, so not simple to just to slam the door and walk out. So staying calm, creating "Plan B" in case its just not working out, trying to look at the positives..... Just like drifting into a potential breakup/divorce. And so are the emotions of sadness, frustration, anger, hope, despair.... Onwards and upwards, looks like a great sunny weekend ahead and thanks again, comic books and cartoons can be like visual poetry, :) Mange Tak, MK

Peter R

2/15/2019 02:28:19 am

Tusind tak Michael. That's a nice positive way to look at it and sounds very similar to how I look at it all. God weekend.

Michael Radcliffe

2/15/2019 04:16:33 am

Sorry to read this, mate. If it's any consolation as a Brit born and raised here I feel exactly the same. It's not the country I recognise anymore. Almost like I've been forced to move without anyone asking me. Although it looks the same, you just know it's a different place.

Clothylde link

2/15/2019 04:51:33 am

Me too... Thank you for the cartoon. With my best wishes for the future...

James

2/15/2019 05:46:01 am

Thank you for summarizing and making us feel less alone.
I’m a Brit/Aus in France for 24 years and like to think I’m a mix of the best ( and no doubt the worst ) of all three. Nationality seems more of a game to play than something to defend at the cost of disrupting and destroying lives.
Having had Brexit-induced insomnia for months now, my mind has become hazy from fatigue, worry and this endless Soapopera . Your cartoon version of our journeys helps to clear thoughts .

All the best Danglish !

Richard Howell

2/15/2019 06:04:35 am

Thank you for doing your "comic" strip. Sadly I had friends vote "leave" who I thought were too intelligent to do so. They are still trying to justify their decision even in the face of to obvious disadvantages - demonising the EU to justify it.

Christopher

2/15/2019 06:39:37 am

Your comic made me cry. I'm a Canadian who has lived in Britain for 12 years and have two kids born here. My family was cleared from Yorkshire and Cornwall to Canada. It took a long time, but I made a home here and came to feel it was my home. That was ripped away on 23/6/2016

I was recently was asked about Brexit by someone at home. I told them what it was about and how it made me feel, and I feel like you transcribed it.

It made me cry. Thank you for this, I will send it to people when they ask.

Mike Jaimes

2/15/2019 06:39:45 am

Yeah. Just seen this shared on Facebook and, as a Brit born and raised here, I'm so sorry for the way that some wankers I'm forced to share this relatively small island with have behaved, and that you don't feel welcome here. I voted (and encouraged people to vote) remain and these last two years have shown me nothing other than that I was absolutely right to do so. That we are in this situation is horrendous to me and I cannot see a way that this will end well. :-(

Martina

2/15/2019 08:05:10 am

I'm so sad to aknoledge that it wasn't just "my impression"... anyway I left UK before hate crimes started rising... because something HAD changed. I still miss Brighton tho

Zay Ahmed link

2/15/2019 11:25:38 am

So brilliantly put. I'm Irish and have been here for 8 years. It's a sad situation and I too feel unwelcome in a way I've never felt before. The uncertainty of it all just makes it worse.

David Bouch

2/15/2019 10:27:26 pm

Denmark is infected with the same vocal minority of nationalists too. The good thing about Brexit is that even many of the people in the Dansk Folkeparti camp are now able to see where Euroscepticism leads and we are expecting them to lose a lot of votes at the next Danish elections.
Denmark doesn't have the same press bias that caused Brexit in the first place. Neither does it have the same concentrations of people who have been utterly betrayed by successive Labour and Conservative governments. Something has been rotten in the UK for a long time.
If anything positive can come from Brexit, it will be a realisation among many of its supporters that they have been led down the garden path for over fifty years by people who have no interest in their well-being, just their own personal bank accounts. Perhaps Brexit is the political reboot the UK needs. Sadly, my experience of the UK is that this won't be what will happen... rather a simple regression to Victorianism, with workhouses, child labour, an even poorer underclass than we have today. Victorianism was only cured by the First World War, followed by another one soon after. But it was never completely eradicated. Now it looks as if it is back.

Lucy

2/15/2019 10:59:20 pm

As a British citizen I am embarrassed & appalled at what has happened in this country.
You have nailed exactly how my friend from France feels.
If it helps atall - there are many many people in the UK who share your sadness, and your fury.
Despite how you feel - please don’t leave the UK. You can’t leave us on our own with these Brexiteer monsters!!!

Helinä

2/16/2019 01:22:56 am

Spot on! Thank you Peter! Tack så mycket! Kiitos!

marianne stevens

2/16/2019 01:35:15 am

Hi Peter, thanks for sharing this. You capture so well the feelings of grief and bewilderment I felt on 24th June. I'm binational and grew up really believing in the European project
Sure not everything about the EU is great (hated how Greece was dealt with for example), but still to me, Europe coming together really felt like progress. For me the referendum result was like my world view being dismantled.
I wonder if this is what it felt like for older East Germans when the Berlin wall came down (like the mum in goodbye Lenin).
Anyway, point is thankyou for articulating these feelings.

David

2/16/2019 01:42:04 am

I'm British (half Scot, half English) and am living in Denmark (24 years) People are all completely bewildered by what is happening in the UK, a country they used to feel closest to in Europe. They can never think of the UK in the same way and it is very saddening.

Monica

2/16/2019 02:34:58 am

I love your cartoon Peter and despair at what this country has become. I know people don't like to say they've made a mistake, but why is everyone so determinedly deaf? I'm not looking forward to the future. So sad. (No ginger).

Annika

2/16/2019 02:39:24 am

Thank you!!!! I totally relate to this . It is so sad and stressful. I used to love England! I have lived here over 30 years now . So sad 😞

Kevin Lacy

2/16/2019 03:04:55 am

Thanks for this. You have my sympathies. I was/am proud of being European and proud of the European project. I have increasingly felt shame in the attitude of a large percentage of my fellow Brits. I still hope that common sense will prevail and we will return to membership of the EU before it is too late.
Btw, according to Tim Minchin, only a ginger can call another ginger ginger. 🙂

Hannah

2/16/2019 03:10:34 am

Brexiteer idiots don't realise (and ptobay don'td care) how many lives they've ruined. A friend of mine lived here since she was a child, then was about to start uni here, but his family decided to move back to mainland Europe. I also know so many European couples in the UK, happily living and working, now plunged into uncertainty. I'm British, but my husband is German... I'm sure he doesn't feel that welcome, around all those xenophobic morons (me neither to be honest), even if some people tell him he's one of the 'ok' foreigners. My eyes rolled back in my head so far, I see backwards now.

K Pedersen

2/16/2019 06:24:14 am

As a fellow Dane I agreed with it all, but we are the lucky ones. We are white and generally made to feel welcome, the number of people who have said to me "i didn't think it was going to affect you..."I have had some negative experiences since the referendum, but its only when people like us talk that people notice we are foreign because we look like we are british

Ken Summers

2/16/2019 09:05:57 am

Amazing that so many people equate being in the EU as being European. Would you say that a Swiss was not European? How about a Norwegian? While all this self-flagellation disguised as apology is all very well, it might be worth considering that the referendum actually changed nothing at all. Those people who liked you before the Referendum still do, those who didn't, still don't.

Peter R

2/16/2019 10:48:39 am

Hi Ken, I completely agree with you on that. Calling it self-flagellation it's harsh - it's how I feel and I didn't do this for pity points, pads on the back on anything else. I think it's fantastic that people recognise themselves in my story and I think it's equally great that some people don't. The only thing I disagree with you on is that something DID change and that was that the people who didn't like me/us/whatever you want to call it, they suddenly got a much more vocal voice in people like Farage or many of newspapers. Suddenly it was fine shouting abuse at people on the front pages, live telly or even on the street as I have seen with my own eyes. These people didn't do this before Brexit and that is what has changed. So for many of us it did change something.

Thanks for taking the time to read my story and for commenting. Have a great weekend.

David Sekules

2/16/2019 11:01:02 am

If nothing was changed, why did we have the vote? What have we spent all this time and money negotiating about? Why are all those businesses going?

A lot was changed by the referendum. I no longer recognise my own country. I'm delighted for you that you haven't noticed any difference ...

Anna

2/16/2019 10:23:16 am

Exactly how I feel. I came to England with one rucksack. I was invited to get the job here. This job kept me working and somehow by the way I had my first car, my first family and my first house. I settled here. Now, I am not welcome to get the job anymore. Iwas told by rulemakers that the job should be for British people and emplyer should have the right to choose British workers first and then if there is no British interested, employer can take workers from EU. I have a choice. To stay here and face discrimination, or just leave this mess and start my new life somewhere else????....

David Sekules

2/16/2019 11:06:44 am

Brilliant comic, Peter! You capture the disorientation and loss beautifully ...

Helen

2/16/2019 11:32:43 am

Probably many others have said similar things but I'm a Brit and I feel very much like you do, without the benefit of having a different country to turn to. I'm ashamed that what is supposed to be my country has made you feel this way I'm ashamed that an accident of birth makes the rest of the world think that I condone this. Millions of us voted against Brexit and we have been utterly ignored. I'm so sorry that you and many others have been made to feel this way. If I could take EU citizenship tomorrow in exchange for my British nationality I would do so.

Patricia Holgate

2/16/2019 11:47:23 am

My family and I moved to the UK in 1993. It has sometimes been tough, but never once did I regret having moved here. I looked forward to our 25th anniversary of coming to Britain, the home of some of my ancestors. But in the end we did not celebrate that anniversary. The Brexit vote had taken place two years before, and we were angy, sad, and bewildered that the country we now call home seemed to have suddenly given permission to people to express racism, ignorance, and aggressive behaviour in public as never before. We have never personally been the targets of hostile attitudes to immigrants, but we identify with those who have. Until that kind of ugliness and division stops, we will never feel truly settled here again. The legendary fairness and fair play of the British seems to have almost disappeared, and we can't feel proud of being part of a nation whose standards have now slipped so badly. I continue to hope that sanity and reason will return to our interactions and discourse at every level in our society, as at the moment we have surely lost our way.

Derek Roberts

2/16/2019 01:53:23 pm

It really breaks my heart reading your comic strip. I am male, ginger, 62 years old, British, and have never been so ashamed of my country. A perfect storm of Tory arrogance, ineffective opposition, shameless lies from the press and others, an intransigent and stupid PM have diminished the U.K., not only in the eyes of the world, but in those of our valued friends from the EU and a large portion of the U.K. population. I wish I could make things right for you; I still hope that someone will come to their senses and just call it off, but that hope is fading fast. You have many friends here that you haven’t met yet; try and hold that thought.

TimN

2/16/2019 03:48:29 pm

As a Uk born and raised person living outside of the UK , living in a community that has a strong anti-pom culture supported by a former prime minister and growing up with that I know exactly how you feel, all be it on a much smaller scale.
In the mid 70's the then prime minister of NZ, Robert Muldoon, called English immigrants the 10 pound poms and said kiwis should punch a pom a day. Even now 40 years on I encounter that very same sentiment. They shrug it off as just a joke and I need to lighten up, but when your formative years are spent being told you are somehow less that everyone else because of the place of your birth its hard to find the claimed humor.
I’ve travelled back to the UK many times for extended periods to work, so since the mid 80's I’ve spent as much time in the UK ad NZ, and I’ve observed a huge shift in attitudes. in 84-87 it was all about the Irish, in 92-95 it was all love and welcome, in 98-02 I was with my kiwi born partner who was surprised at the warm welcome and acceptance of new immigrants and the huge diversity of the communities. Something NZ didn't really have. We were back in 2008 and then again in 2012 and there was an under-current of anger you could taste. Suddenly we found ourselves to be 'bloody furriners". We visited very briefly in 2014 and went straight across to channel to France, in 2017 our visit was only to Europe. Even good friends we had made on previous trips and family treated us with contempt. I can't see a time when I will ever return to the UK now, our plan was in 2014 before the ref to sell up our NZ holdings and business and move to France to run a hotel, as I’m a chef and hotel manager by profession and my partner is an accountant. That desire is now of course very much on hold.

Charles Pearmain

2/16/2019 04:24:28 pm

I suspect that those ranting 'patriots' who deludedly infer some sort of superiority because they claim to be "English" don't appreciate the irony of them actually being Angle-ish, Saxon, Jute or Frisian. We are the most mongrel of nations and at present the yapping of the loudest and lowest curs is being allowed to drown out good sense.

Eileen Magnello

2/16/2019 05:03:40 pm

I think your Brexit cartoon is fabulous! I loved reading all of it. It encapsulated the whole journey from before the referendum to where we are today. Except no one knows just exactly where we are. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll ever know where we are??

I share all of your concerns, frustrations, sadness, and disappointment. I was born and grew up in the USA (to Italian parents) and felt quite European growing up. I have now lived in the UK for the last 35 years, which means I’ve lived here longer than I did in the US. I certainly don’t want to go back to Trump’s white supremacist, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic America. 😱😱😱 Whilst I’m thinking of getting an Italian passport so I can stay in the EU, I would rather stay in the UK, especially one that is tolerant, open, kind , polite and civilised, as it pretty much was until that fateful Brexit Vote.

We must remain optimistic, as a People’s Vote Remains a viable option! Politicians and civil servants are doing what they can to give us a second chance, now that most of us know what are the alternatives and options.
Before I found your cartoon, I just wrote to a Danish friend and colleague. 😊

I hope you’ll do more of your cartoons, they made me feel much better whrh I was reading it!!

Josie

2/16/2019 08:35:10 pm

You couldn’t have captured better, I feel the same. I spent well over 20 years in England and most of my adult life. Thank you.

Selene

2/16/2019 11:07:42 pm

Exactly how i feel, but without the freckless and blonde hair! I was taken here by my irish nan at 15, im italian, after stomping my feet and crying my eyes put for time, i eventually finished school grew up made a life here, lived here longer then my country of birth and now this 💔
Whatever are we going to do next? Is the question that pops up in my head everyday. If it wasnt for all the lovely Brits that voice their disgust everyday i probably wouldn’t have any hope left in my heart. To all you Brits don’t stop voicing! We need you ❤️

Mathis

2/16/2019 11:44:24 pm

Hi - THANK YOU- this made my morning- love every bit and how comes your comic expresses my feelings? Love the Danish used to own this or that bit - 😂 - thankfully no brexitarse colleagues and the locals in Glasgow aren’t really supporting it either. What gets me now is the overall impression of ‘lethargy’ with really no one but a few upstanding politicians and journalists trying to keep everyone interested... anyway THANK YOU!!!!

Michael Baldwin

2/16/2019 11:46:30 pm

Thanks Peter, your cartoons are wonderful, although understandably very sad. I am truly truly sorry for this disgusting thing; at least take it from me, and from the great majority of British people: you and all those born outside the UK ARE welcome in England, and we will fight to keep it that way. Stop Brexit!

Susanne

2/17/2019 12:35:27 am

New PeoplesVoteMarch at high noon on Saturday 23 March starting in Park Lane, London.
Would be great if you could do a new cartoon to promote this Peter? Just an idea :-)
Be there everyone!

Judy Chan

2/17/2019 04:32:08 am

We should all try to remember that the VAST majority of British people DID NOT vote for Brexit. 17 million of a population of 60 plus million voted for it. Let's get the Maths straight, not the propaganda from a Brexit loving press and majority Conservative/DUP government. 52% of the 78% of the electorate who bothered to vote actually voted Brexit, leaving most British people appalled. We are even more appalled now that we have seen the damage that just the threat of Brexit has done to the UK, the £ falling by one third against the Japanese Yen immediately after the Leave vote, facilitating the Japanese takeover of ARM; the further fall of the £ against other currencies, devaluation of our currency to the extent that the £ is just loose change that fills your purse. The currency turned to plastic is a fitting symbol of devaluation, inflation and the Conservative rubbishing of the air and environment. Add to this the appalling rise of Yoo-Bah! politics, extreme right wing parties, racism and xenophobia, austerity, personal and government debt, homelessness and food banks, hospital queues, violent crime with gun and knife use, mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse and business collapse, and I no longer recognise the country I was born in 70 plus years ago. The institutional racism at the Home Office against British Commonwealth citizens in recent years has deprived people of all means of staying alive or healthy, indeed has caused people to be thrown out of their jobs and homes and left destitute on the streets or deported away from their families here. 'I Daniel Blake' won international awards for showing how the sick and disabled have been rendered destitute in Britain. Theresa May has treated E.U citizens living in Britain like bargaining chips. She should have listened to Jeremy Corbyn, who said from day 1 after Leave won that we should honour the rights of all EU citizens living in Britain BECAUSE IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Please join the next march in London and show these appalling Conservative and DUP people in government that the vast majority of British people want to revoke article 50 and STAY in the EU. Make it bigger than the Anti Iraq War Demonstration of 2 million, make it rattle the walls of Parliament, like Jericho, make it louder than the voices of the Press Baron Millionaires and media placemen. Join this old lady and shout out to stay in the EU! Shout out for the peace and prosperity we used to enjoy, shout out for our European friends and neighbours!

Rasmus Jørgensen

2/17/2019 06:21:00 am

Hi Peter,
Awesome comic, probably not easy to make and that pretty much sums up the emotional confusion I'm left with as well unfortunately. Being a Danish national myself and having lived in the UK for about 13 years before moving to Denmark again 6 years ago, I absolutely agree; you are a mix of both cultures. The proof is having moved 'back' and not feeling at home or belonging here for the longest time. And then Brexit happened!! I felt utterly betrayed! I have a lot of love for the UK and consider it my home (1st or 2nd, doesn't matter) and miss so many aspects of living there and would happily have moved back there, but probably not now... I felt like my countrymen (or at least a huge portion of them) had gone insane, watching it from a distance, horrified. I couldn't believe that they would do such a thing, that they could be so stupid! (the nerve is still a bit raw as you can probably tell). However, most of all I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your story and putting something into words and pictures that I have had a hard time explaining to people how I feel about and what it means to me.
All the best
Rasmus

Richard

2/17/2019 07:06:14 am

Thanks for this. I'm sorry that you felt the need to publish this cartoon, and sorry that so many other commentators feel the same way. I'm English, with English parents and grandparents, so have no real choice but to stay and try and do what I can in my own small way to mitigate this disaster. I have friends, work colleagues, family who voted for Brexit. It's important to remember I think, that very few, if any of them, voted for what is happening now. Yes, they have to take their share of the blame, for believing the campaign lies and for not thinking through the potential repercussions of such a monumental decision. I also think that pretty much anyone who takes an active interest in politics in this country (which is of course a tiny minority of the populace) could guess in 2016 that something like this could happen due to the poor quality of political discourse and the sheer lack of ability evident in Parliament over the last 30 years, however the way that the post Brexit situation has been handled by Westminster is staggering, and the vast majority of blame has to be placed at the doors of our political elite, our appalling media and the small percentage of the population who have seen this as the green light to espouse their pig-ignorant, disgusting and xenophobic views. I still believe that the vast majority of the 52% of voters who voted for Brexit in 2016 are not like this. I still have some small hope that the chaos about to be unleashed can be stopped. Whatever happens, it will, I think, take a long time for the wounds of this debacle to be healed.

Richard McSharry link

2/17/2019 01:21:31 pm

I have read every single comment and almost moved to tears by all the pain shared here.

It is time to stop this Brexit madness. Put your money where it's needed or join the march on 23rd - the People's Vote needs you!

https://www.peoples-vote.uk/crowdfunder

Remember that only 17m out of a population of 65m+ voted leave. So we can turn this around with people power.

Although I am British born and no longer live in the UK, I still donated to The People's Vote because Brexit is an elitist lie and it is not good for the whole of the EU. The EU is stronger with Britain in it. If Britain leaves it will only suffer, as will the EU. The EU is not perfect but it is a LONG TERM project. Rome was not built in a day!

My background:

I am a 50 year-old Brit born and raised in England to an Irish father and a Northern Ireland mother and married to a Thai. Your cartoon speaks volumes to me and my partner.

Fortunately for me I am gifted with intuition and some far-sightedness and I saw this mess coming years ago when that idiot Cameron started using the idea of referendum to get more power. Watch him here and you will see what a 2-faced lying pig he is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jI-ApZA-GA

With a heavy heart and a goodbye to lifelong friends and family, I left the UK with my Thai partner back in 2012 and moved to mainland Europe. Goodbye and good-riddance. I feel so sorry for everyone of you still living in this waking nightmare.

Donate. Campaign. Write to your MP. Turn up on 23rd. Scream it from the rooftops if you have to!

Katrin

2/17/2019 11:05:20 pm

Hi Peter, I’m Danish - Living in Denmark but have always had a love for Scotland. But the Way The World is going Theese days I don’t know what is worse anymore, the hatred against “newcomers/ outsiders/ different looking / different acting” is growing everywhere. It’s so sad. What they are doping with brexit is horendous but they are infected with a simulary stupidity in other countries too, all in the name of wanting to go back.... back to what “high children mortality”? (Not using vaccines), “excluding people from society” ? (Koncentration camps).

We are burning this earth, destroying the future, nesting in our own bellybuttons.

Some of it in the name of religion- but as far as I know most religions has a phrase about “loving your next” and “you shall not kill”

Some of it in the name of protection from others misuse of the systems - there will always be misuse, but where do have our focus - on the little guy or on the billion dollar thief /company ?

Oh
Sometimes the world just makes me so sad.

Thanks for a well written comic strip

- Katrin

Tom

2/18/2019 11:02:45 pm

English, been living in Germany for almost long enough that staying wouldn't be problematic. Almost. The problem for me is that I have no desire to go back to England anymore, like many fellow Brits living somewhere continental EU. Especially not having watched from here the mess unfold over there.

It's everywhere I go too. Every German I meet, who finds out that I'm English, wants to know what's going on in Britain. Why is this happening, they ask. What do I think about I all, they inquire. It makes no sense to them, and try as I like I can't help them see any sense in it, because I can't find any sense in it myself. Their slightly amused expression usually turns to a pitying smile as I explain the situation as it is for me.

Of course the worst part now for everyone is the uncertainty, which for me is a crushing dread that I might have to go home, to a place that isn't really my home anymore.

Francoise Fletcher

2/19/2019 03:39:37 am

Exactly how I feel even though I'm not Danish or red haired, or young!!! I have lived in UK for 46 years, worked, paid taxes (still do!). This is my home I am more British than French apparently but now I am going to have to apply to get "settled status" and be allowed to stay?!?!?
Help! My world has gone mad!!!!

Linda link

2/19/2019 09:18:53 am

I was nodding along as I was reading it, though I'm one of those unwanted "Eastern Europeans", I still get told I will be "fine", in my case the "others" are those ones on benefits and I work. (Off topic but I also like the tree branches and leaves and the puddles of water.)

Gareth

2/19/2019 11:10:38 pm

I’m so sorry. I really am. I don’t recognise my country either. We’ve seen to have lost our perspective. Our ability to critically think and challenge. 40+ years of drip-fed EU fearmongering from a tiny (but powerful) group of people is coming home to roost. We no longer have the ability to separate fact from fiction. Worse,we don’t even want to. We are so driven by ideology that any fact shown to show that ideology as false is swiftly dismissed.

It’s a dangerous time for everyone here. I don’t think anyone truely understands what they are about to give up and lose in order to realise their ideology. Job losses, pain, austerity, freedoms. All will be seen as being fine sacrifices to achieve what they want. It will only be after the dustvhas settled that the reality will dawn on people.

I look at my 3 year old niece, I think about her future. And I think how furious she is going to be when she understands how much was taken away from her, by so few. How people who should have been looking after her, threw her under a bus over easily disproven lies. Her generation will never forgive us. I wouldn’t.

I’m sorry that good people like you will be on the forefront of that pain.

Tom from Sweden

2/20/2019 04:39:05 am

Hi Peter,

Thanks for putting this together, you've nailed spot on what its like to have an identity that's caught somewhere between being British and from one of the other 27 EU countries in this toxic climate currently in the UK.

I'm originally Swedish but have lived here in this country from the age of 2, grown up in the UK education system and graduated from university here as well. I've been working in this country since graduating but have taken the painful emotional decision that I'm not sure that I belong here anymore and have taken steps to move back "home" - if I can call Sweden that these days. I used to always describe myself as Swedish on paper but British in my heart but recent turn of events in the last few years have really called into question that and have left me wondering where I really belong.

Your comment on Brexiteer colleagues resonates perfectly with me - as I feel stabbed in the back by "friends" and "colleagues" who voted for us to leave without neither understanding nor caring how that would impact on their friends and loved ones around them.

Here's to hoping that by some miraculous turn of events over the next month that there's a change of direction with a second referendum.

Paul

2/22/2019 01:08:11 am

Wonderful strip. You have said what a lot of people sometimes miss, which is how much public opinion is simply dictated by the media. I never saw those stupid buses, but the media is present in every aspect of our lives, subverting our common sense :-(

Peter R

2/22/2019 03:15:44 am

Hi Paul, thank you - really glad you like it.
And yes, I couldn't agree more with what you said :-(

Jane Venn

2/22/2019 03:13:37 am

I was born in England to English parents (but I have clear German Irish ancestry). I voted Remain, and yet, becasue I am British, I am Sorry!

Tony H

2/23/2019 04:59:00 am

Agree with everything your cartoon says, and am firmly in the remain camp, including free-movement of Europeans. Except: you imply Britain is not full. Well, according to a UN study, the sustainable population of UK is 30 million; at present we need to import half our food. More than Remain or Brexit, this country needs a long-term population (not just 'immigration') policy, and fast.

2/28/2019 01:50:56 am

Thank you for this - it needs to be shared widely.

Saara Koikkalainen link

3/27/2019 04:27:44 pm

Many thanks for putting your feelings into so impressive words and pictures! These are very insightful - I am currently researching the Brexit situation from the point of view of Nordic migrants living in London. I have shared the link to your page and shown a couple of your comics as a part of a conference presentation in Finland, and will do so also here in the UK (where I am now to experience all this first hand). The academic audience has been impressed!

Willhart link

6/23/2019 04:12:48 pm

3 years are kinda weird for emotions. I feel like I'm not even the same person I was back then. As a random person living in Finland, I've been watching news and even some parliament sittings on this, kinda just taking in the drama. There is not much I can say from here, other than to wish for good luck.

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A Daned and Confused Brexit

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