Things I wish I understood but don't (plus the week I got slaughtered on Twitter)

Migration, tax, religion and the NHS... all topics that continue to mystify me

Dear Jasper,

This week I got absolutely trolled to oblivion on Twitter. It is true what they say; this is definitely the most angry, toxic social media platform on the internet. Which is why I hardly ever tweet and much prefer TikTok. 

The trolling was half fair, if I’m being honest, for reasons I’ll explain shortly.  

But as background, I wrote an article for The Times about the fact that your father can’t get a visa to come and live with us in England due to the UK’s ridiculously harsh immigration laws. I then went on TV and the radio to discuss it. None of this garnered much hatred until it made its way to Twitter, upon which I was savaged, mostly by Remainers who pointed out that I once, in the past, wrote in semi-support for Brexit, for The Telegraph.

I didn’t actually vote for Brexit. I voted to Remain. I was subsequently horrified, however, by how the majority of my Remainer peers behaved in the aftermath. I knew people who completely cut off members of their family or social circle because they had voted Leave; others who went Orwellian and called for a second referendum purely on the basis that the results hadn’t gone their way. Most disappointingly, almost every last one of them was guilty of branding all Brexiteers a bunch of ignorant, knuckle-dragging racists, regardless of their voting motives.