IT’S a flag-shaped irony. Those right-wing politicians who drape themselves in the union flag risk putting some of us off the country altogether. Here are a few reasons not to feel so patriotic – apologies for anything missing, as the list is getting longer by the day.

Cutting foreign aid…

For a wealthy country to break its promise to much poorer parts of the world, and potentially to expose hundreds of thousands of children to suffering and even death, is just so shameful that you wonder what Boris Johnson can be thinking of. The answer to that question, sadly, is that he is playing to the gallery at home, and is happy to cause suffering abroad as a sop to narrow-minded voters. Last November, a YouGov survey found that two-thirds of voters approved of Johnson’s £5bn cut in foreign aid – even though this rode roughshod over his own manifesto. Many leading Tories are aghast at this cruel proposal and yesterday attempted to hold a vote in the Commons, only to be denied by the Speaker. As well as having a grave human cost, this cut is short-sighted and risks weakening our soft power, while leaving other countries to move in.

Raving on about asylum seekers…

Placing asylum seekers in a rotten old military barracks in Kent, where the conditions are said to be appalling, was last week ruled to be unlawful by the high court. Will that make any difference? Probably not. After all, home secretary Priti Patel was decreed to have broken the ministerial code by swearing and shouting at civil servants, and Boris Johnson ignored the ruling, leaving his ethics adviser, Sir Alex Allan, with no choice but to resign. Incidentally, can you imagine having to advise that man on ethics? Nearly as tough a gig as being his adviser on birth control. Or his truth-telling tsar. As for the Napier barracks, where asylum seekers are treated like prisoners, that is a disgraceful way for a civilised country to conduct its affairs. Perhaps we no longer wish to be civilised. Still, raving on about asylum seekers creates another useful distraction.

Brexit being a bit of a balls-up…

Thanks to the pandemic, an overly obliging media and a cowed BBC, you don’t hear much about the continued pain being inflicted by Brexit. According to an interview Johnson has just given, he has nothing to add, saying “that lemon has been sucked dry”. Bizarre, but as sucking lemons is not generally considered to be enjoyable, perhaps his choice of metaphor hints at an underlying truth about Brexit. Here is one small example of the sour pointlessness of it all, as reported by the Guardian at the weekend. Tough new entry requirements could cut by a half the number of visits by young Europeans. How mad is that? Here is one family example. My dad, now aged 89, visited France on an exchange as a boy and this left him with a life-long love of the country. Are we wanting young Europeans to grow up with a life-long suspicion of the UK?

Offering up our medical data…

Why is the government so eager to pass on our medical data to the likes of Google and medical corporations – and why is this seemly happening on the sly, with a few weeks’ notice and no official way to opt out? Having declared myself suspicious of this initiative, I have downloaded a letter to send to my GP asking for this not to happen. Whether that will make a difference is hard to say, but it seems like a sensible move.

Tory MPs huffing as footballers take the knee…

Football in this country – and it’s not often you’ll see a sentence starting with those words round here – is multiracial and many leading players are Black. So it is hardly surprising that England players should take the knee before a match, even if this does leave a few idiot fans to start booing. Hardly surprising, either, sadly, that some Tory MPs should join in the booing, and in the process make themselves look stupid. Yes, Brendan Clarke-Smith, we are looking at you. The MP for Little-Brainshire – or somewhere – compared the anti-racism gesture to footballers performing the Nazi salute during a 1938 match against Germany. As actor David Schneider pointed out on Twitter: “Nazi salute = support for racism and genocide Taking the knee = opposition to racism and racial injustice.”

Further additions to this list are welcome. Well, they’re not, but you are welcome to make them.