England, which England? England, whose England? Why should we love or at least tolerate it? As recently as a year ago, one could answer the who, whats and whys with a series of “nots”. This land was not Idi Amin’s Uganda. It would not contemplate deporting nearly three million European citizens. It would be unconscionable to allow generally good people who live, love, marry, raise children and work among us to fear being marched to the ports like enemy aliens. Not least when there are about a million of our fellow citizens living in Europe who could be the target of retaliatory measures.

Our leaders were not wholly stupid politicians, or at least not all of them were. The Conservative party was the party of business. It would not gleefully cut Britain off from the largest export market in the world. Labour would not join the government in taking Britain out. Labour was the party of the working class, or at least it thought it was, and would know that the working class would suffer most from the lost jobs and rising inflation that leaving the single market as well as the EU would bring.

Do not dismiss negative definitions. They may not be grand. They may not produce chauvinist boasts of national greatness. But better than any loudmouth brag is the grudging patriotic pride that enables you to say that, criticise it as much as you wish, but my country does not hold the threat of deportation over millions. Nor does it threaten the living standards of its poorest citizens.

Wherever that country once was, it is no longer our country. To understand the dark dynamic that is driving it to renounce its best instincts and best interests, you must first tackle the prohibition-ridden subject of mass stupidity and public life.

Pseudo-heroic commentators say they defy taboos. They claim we are “not allowed” to talk about immigration, although we talk of little else. They say we have a taboo against speaking about death and then prove it does not exist by speaking about death. But there is a genuine taboo against saying that people as individuals can be stupid and that there are times when their stupidity combines to produce gross, self-harming acts of national stupidity. Try repeating that heresy on the BBC and its presenters will react with the horror of bishops watching a drunk light his farts in a cathedral.

Daniel Kahneman may be hailed as one of the greatest thinkers of our age. Everywhere, psychologists may be abandoning the old belief in the “wisdom of crowds” and looking at our irrational biases, our overconfidence, our willingness to seize on scraps of information that confirm our prejudices. Yet in the public sphere one must take a deep breath before stating that the electorate can make stupid decisions, even though, as all of us as individuals know, we make them constantly. I must therefore approach the subject gingerly.

It is not fair to say that everyone who voted to leave was a fool. But they were certainly taken for fools if they believed the Tory press, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Michael Gove when they said that leaving the EU would create rather than destroy jobs.

Not everyone who is saying they will vote for Theresa May is a fool – you only have to look at the embarrassment of the opposition to get their point. But, if they did not immediately think “but that’s what you are doing with Britain and the EU” when she warned that the SNP wanted to “wrench Scotland out of its biggest market”, they were allowing May to take them for fools.

Last week, the House of Lords passed a modest amendment asking her government to introduce proposals within three months of article 50 being triggered to ensure EU citizens in the UK maintained their residence rights. What could be the problem with it? The government wisely says it does not want to deport 3 million people. Large sections of the public and private sectors would collapse if it did. The emotional consequences would be as great as the economic consequences. For surely even this administration knows there is no “them” and “us”. Europeans, including British Europeans, have loved and married each other. Start threatening their relationships and ministers would be, as was once said of the tabloid press that so admires Mrs May, “dabbling their fingers in the stuff of other people’s souls”.

The government says that it does not intend to deport. It is merely refusing to confirm migrants’ status until the position of Brits in EU countries is assured. But why make a threat unless you can envisage circumstances when you can carry it out? More to the point, the damage the folly-filled government says it wants to avoid is already being sustained as a result of its obstinacy.

It is a cliche to say that the wealth of modern economies depends on people rather than plant and machinery. It is equally obvious that people do not stay where they are not welcome. The NHS and business are begging the government to provide reassurance now, because the skilled workers we need are already sensing the hostility and indifference and talking of going.

Instead of being met with a serious reply, Tory politicians greeted the Lords’ polite request to think again with cries of “posturing” and “doing a disservice to the national interest”.

The insults were symptomatic of a rightwing dynamic that is driving this country deep into irredeemable folly. No one expected the Leave camp to win the referendum, including Leave campaigners. Theresa May, Philip Hammond and moderate Tories voted Remain. To justify her ascent to power, May has had to out-right her party’s triumphant right, threaten jobs by tearing us out of the single market and threaten foreigners by treating them as potential aliens.

Labour ought to have opposed both the chauvinism and the assault on living standards. But Jeremy Corbyn cannot lead his own party, let alone a national protest movement.

Meanwhile, a large slice of Labour MPs have convinced themselves that they must pander to the right to save their seats. Many explanations have been advanced for Labour’s willingness to ape Ukip and take us out of the single market. To my mind the taboo-breaker is the convincing: Jeremy Corbyn is a wombat-thick ignoramus.

The result is a country caught up in maniacal folly that no one, least of all the prime minister, wants to shake it from.

England, which England? Not an England any quiet patriot can take a grudging pride in, unless they resolve to fight to change it.