Bulletin from London: They call themselves British patriots, so why don’t they live in the UK?

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O ne of the more curious aspects of British nationalism is how often the patriotism felt by its most outspoken advocates stops short of actually wanting to live here.

The classic example is the late financier James Goldsmith, who set up the Referendum Party in the 1990s to promote the removal of the UK from the European Union. Such was his love for Britain and his animosity towards the EU that he lived mostly in France (where he was born) and died in Spain.

The former chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson was chairman of Vote Leave, a campaign organisation set up to get Britain out of Europe in the referendum that Goldsmith didn’t live to see. Lawson was such a passionate believer in UK independence he campaigned for it from his home in Gascony, France.