Girl, 12, was vilified for her British pride

A CONTEMPT for Britain runs deep within the political class. Back in 1941, the great patriot George Orwell wrote that “England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles, it is always felt there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman”.

- Leo McKinstry

That spirit of self-loathing within the progressive elite is perhaps even stronger today, fuelled by a neurotic obsession with diversity and a blind worship of mass immigration. We now inhabit a land where patriotism is widely denigrated as a form of bigotry and identity politics have replaced national solidarity. A vast exercise in social engineering and political indoctrination is under way to impose the new orthodoxy.

The past is being “decolonised” and the present drastically refashioned by new arrivals, challenging the concept of British nationhood. Incredibly, one in three babies born here has a foreign mother. And in more than 2,000 schools, 50% of pupils do not speak English as their first language.

“We will create a new social order,” said Labour’s Deputy Leader Harriet Harman when she introduced the 2010 Equality Act. This is one pledge the political establishment has kept.