I am so proud to be British, which is why I don’t want Brexit

There’s a strange misconception that you have to be pro-Brexit to be patriotic; that somehow being pro-EU means you can’t really care about national pride.

What rubbish.

For starters, the way these negotiations have gone hasn’t exactly been a great advert for the UK. A parliament divided, a government falling apart and a country still at its own throat. A recent Sky Data poll found 90 per cent of Brits would call these negotiations a national humiliation. Like many people who want us to stay in the EU, I am desperate to feel pride in my country again.

I remember when I was at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. I was plastered in union flags which I’d painted on myself. I ridiculed the American commentators for not understanding the Only Fools and Horses tribute act. They thought it was tacky, because they didn’t get the cheeky self-deprecating cockiness at the heart of our Great British humour.

I miss that feeling so much. The entire country came together to declare who we are to the world.

Just seven years later and the country is practically at war with itself. Sorry, I mean literally: 3,500 military reservists are being “held at readiness” to deal with the no-deal Brexit which we appear to be about to inflict on ourselves.

When I was touring pro-Leave areas last year, engaging with people in high streets across the country, my ice-breaker was: “So, how do you think the Brexit negotiations are going?” I did that because I knew the answer was almost universally going to be: “Terribly.”

And when I pointed out that the UK currently has three times the voting power of the average EU country and that we had just negotiated a deal that means we follow EU rules with no say at all, people called it disgusting. I don’t want to see my country reduced to that situation any more than Brexit voters do.

As for no-deal Brexit, let’s be clear. There is no major economy in the world that doesn’t have trade deals with its closest neighbours or which trades with them on WTO rules alone. The no-deal option would therefore be doing something which every successful economy in the world has chosen specifically not to do.

So on top of the fact that that would obviously make us poorer, we’ll then be desperate to make trade deals. Uncle Donald is waiting. Given how well the UK-EU negotiations have gone, what do you think happens when we’re up against Mr “America First”?

What’s more, we don’t have a great track record of standing up to America. I’m not just talking about Blair and Bush; I mean recently. For instance, the EU countries were much faster and stronger in their condemnation of Trump’s travel ban on people from majority Muslim countries. And it makes sense: the EU has a combined GDP of $18 trillion, while we were worried about upsetting someone we might soon be dependent on. America’s poodle? That’s not the UK I want us to be.

Our new orange benefactor has already stated his plans to use post-Brexit UK-US trade talks to make the NHS pay more for medicines so that American firms (and the American people) pay less. For many Leavers and Remainers, the NHS is the crown jewel of our national pride. Suffice to say I do not want to see Donald Trump get his grabby little hands on it.

Remainers don’t wave EU flags because they love the UK less, like it is some kind of either/or choice. They wave that flag because it represents the best mechanism for protecting our pride in every part of the United Kingdom.

Under any Brexit scenario we will have to spend the next few years negotiating the actual trade deal with the EU. That’s years of national humiliation. Years of Brexit dominating the headlines. Years of everyone arguing.

A UK at the head of Europe is far greater than a UK at the feet of Donald Trump. I want to feel pride in my country again. That’s why I don’t want Brexit.