AA Gill's Sunday Times Brexit Article And The 'I Want My Country Back' Woman Who Inspired it

'That’s the plan? To swagger into Brussels with Union Jack pants on?'

Writer and critic AA Gill has written one of the more eloquent pieces penned about the EU referendum debate, inspired by an audience member on BBC Question Time.

The Sunday Times article starts:

It was the woman on Question Time that really did it for me. She was so familiar. There is someone like her in every queue, every coffee shop, outside every school in every parish council in the country. Middle-aged, middle-class, middle-brow, over-made-up, with her National Health face and weatherproof English expression of hurt righteousness, she’s Britannia’s mother-in-law. The camera closed in on her and she shouted: “All I want is my country back. Give me my country back.”

And here she is...

The clip is from an episode broadcast from Doncaster back in April in which the undoubtedly passionate lady in question said: "I want my country back and I want freedom.

"I don't believe our country is free anymore. You only have to look at the European Union and what's going off there.

"I want my country back. I want Britain to be Britain. We're all just so frustrated with all this rubbish we're hearing."

One positive outcome of Britain becoming more insular & xenophobic is that soon I'll be able to sigh mournfully that I want my country back

— Ahir Shah (@AhirShah) June 14, 2016

Gill took issue with the sentiment, writing "getting our country back" means "snorting a line of that most pernicious and debilitating Little English drug, nostalgia".

He wrote: "In the Brexit fantasy, the best we can hope for is to kick out all the work-all-hours foreigners and become caretakers to our own past in this self-congratulatory island of moaning and pomposity."

Adding: "They reckon they can get out of the marriage, keep the house, not pay alimony, take the kids out of school, stop the in-laws going to the doctor, get strict with the visiting rights, but, you know, still get a shag at the weekend and, obviously, see other people on the side."

The article - well worth reading in full here - drew praise from many quarters...

Wonderful piece by AA Gill. https://t.co/jk82NrjfsF

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 16, 2016

Waited until the last week of campaigning to hear a positive, rousing case for Remain and here it finally is https://t.co/zLnzWleBBV

— Sam Parker (@samparkercouk) June 16, 2016

This, by AA Gill, is brilliant. I agree with every word.https://t.co/y8XCjpnDMn pic.twitter.com/cnBvUaXw7b

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 14, 2016

And a begrudging respect from others...

Here's the AA Gill piece. Even a stopped clock etc. https://t.co/EA3CiOjCXl

— Pip T (@Pipsk1) June 16, 2016

I stopped reading AA Gill a few years ago. After this excellent piece on staying in the EU, I may have to reconsider https://t.co/raPqvHMSBA

— Paul Ham (@tobesome1) June 16, 2016

And inevitably as this is twitter, plenty of people vocally disagreed...

AA Gill lambasts Brexit, points to the racism and xenophobia and then goes on to tell us why Europe is the superior civilisation. Oh dear.

— IHRC Bookshop (@ihrcbookshop) June 16, 2016

AA Gill is wrong again: European Court can overturn UK judgements which means our legislation has to be compatible. A grave issue. #Brexit

— Samantha van Dalen (@londonsouffle) June 16, 2016

@GaryLineker Sanctimonious, lazy, clichéd metropolitan liberal elitism, from sexist, homophobic troll. Secured my leave vote. Thanks.

— Victoria (@RabonaNutmeg) June 16, 2016
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