This precious stone set in the silver sea
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands…

For the first time since the Second World War, the United Kingdom has been cut off from Continental Europe. Once more – with the Channel Tunnel closed – Britain is an island alone.
Most of us will consider this a state of affairs both outrageous and ridiculous. Ostensibly, Britain has been put under quarantine by the rest of Europe because — if you believe bonking fantasist Prof Neil Ferguson, the dodgy modeller from Imperial College — it is rife with an especially contagious mutation of Chinese Coronavirus.

Far more likely, though, is that this is the Euro weenies’ payback for Brexit. Britain is being punished for having made the ‘wrong’ decision in the EU referendum.

But it’s not just the grisly Continentals who are exploiting the Chinese coronavirus for cheap political advantage. So too are the homegrown malcontents and ingrates who always preferred the European Union to their own country, which is why they got so upset when Brexit won.

Usually, when a proud nation comes under attack from malign foreign powers, the people put aside their differences and unite in opposition to the enemy threat.

Not the quislings, though. These enemies-within will always eagerly seize every opportunity to do their country down while making their babyish point about how much they hate Brexit.

Hence the latest Twitter trend – clearly orchestrated by the embittered anti-Brexit mob – #PlagueIsland.

It isn’t true, of course, that all Remainers hate their own country. There does, however, appear to be a strong correlation between negativity towards Britain and blind adoration of the European Union.

Let’s not forget what actress turned green activist Emma Thompson said in 2016 in the run up to the EU referendum.

Britain, she said, is a ‘tiny little cloud-bolted, rainy corner of sort-of Europe, I mean really, a cake-filled, misery laden, grey old island.’

They actually believe this about their country, these people – these citizens of nowhere.

Those of us who voted Brexit, on the other hand, are much more of a mind with John of Gaunt, whose speech in Shakespeare’s Richard II, I quoted at the beginning.

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England

Call us deluded romantics, if you will. But I’d rather be with the optimistic patriots than the bitter, self-loathing traitors.