[williamgb]

Putting aside your condescending commentary, and disregarding for the time being your hysterical proclamations of closed borders, pray tell... What is it you feel my non-EU wife and I, both living in Edinburgh, are putting up with (or not, as you say)?

[freehunter]

How great did Britain become due to the influx of foreign cultures? Would people eat Tikka Masala without Brits learning that style of cooking from the Indians? And would The Beatles have been what they were if they never visited India? Going back to Top Gear, like a quarter of the stuff they do is because of open borders between the UK and the EU. Sailing across the English Channel? Racing through the chunnel? When they visit the US they have to deal with visas and law enforcement and the threat of being deported just because they're foreigners.

I'm not even talking specifically about the EU, the glory days of the British car industry was pre-EU. But the UK seems like it used to be a land of big goals, populated by dreamers who would get things done, impossible things. And the UK today, shrinking back from the rest of the world, stands as a stark contrast to the nation that sailed across the seas and established the most successful colonies and invented the car and invented the computer and owned property on every continent.

I don't know what you and your wife are experiencing in Scotland, I've never been there. But as an outsider looking in, the Britain that exists today seems a lot more afraid of the world than the Britain I learned about in history class. You might think it's condescending or hysterical, but remember that the UK literally owned land on every continent, in Asia and Africa and North America and South America and Antarctica and Europe and Australia. And now they're facing down the prospect of losing Scotland.

I'm sure some people called the fall of the Western Roman Empire "condescending and hysterical" too.