"Politicians should relentlessly pursue the interests of their country’s citizens over those outside it, yet this is all too often forgotten"

Telegraph: 12th April 2024: Robert Jenrick argues that the UK's international reputation should be more about influence rather than what liberal elites think of us

"Brits have always been conscious of our international standing... But the recent obsession with our “international reputation” is different: it has become the preoccupation of liberal elites, not of ordinary patriotic Brits. And the metric against which it is now assessed is no longer power but perception.

What is deemed to strengthen or weaken our “international reputation” invariably reflects the metropolitan elite’s ideological prejudices... So what they really mean when they invoke our “reputation” is not our true national status, but their own reputation and employability among foreign liberal elites... Through the chattering class’s eyes, even the most remotely conservative pronouncements, still less policy, have a devastating effect on “our” reputation...

...This bogus argument was invoked during the EU referendum when advocates of Brexit were condemned as endangering our standing on the world stage. Now the same argument is deployed to support the liberal elite’s latest preoccupations. Take net zero...

...Perhaps the most startling example of this liberal prejudice is their skewed perspective on immigration and defence... Dare to criticise the fact that the European Convention on Human Rights compromises our security and you’ll be greeted with cries from the Left: leave and you’ll enter the club of dictators, Belarus, and Russia. They never admit that it would mean joining our Five Eyes allies...

...If you were to speak to ordinary people in Europe, you’d find Britain held in high regard as a loyal friend. From the Balkans to Brittany, and today in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, Britain is seen as a force for good. This is either disregarded or denied by a metropolitan elite determined to rewrite the history of Britain as one of shame and disgrace..."

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