At my Church of England junior school, more than half a century ago, I sat in a classroom between a Jew and a Roman Catholic (children of refugees) and behind an Egyptian. We walked to and from school together and after homework all played cricket in the street. In our early teens our cricket ‘team’ split off to five different secondary schools.

At my school the French and German teachers had been educated at universities on what we called “the Continent”. They were regularly assisted by students from foreign universities. We had a Polish refugee on the staff.

I took my summer holidays (by train) in France or Italy. I had a holiday job in France, working for a French company. After school, I went to France more frequently than I went to Scotland or Wales. If I’d known the expression, I could have claimed to have “freedom of movement”.

As the youngest reporter on a big city evening paper I wrote about popular music and one night found myself the only white person in a Caribbean club. Apart from being offered “grass” for the first time (the second was in an all-white jazz club) there was nothing unusual, except the music. The Caribbeans in there sometimes addressed each other as “Nigger”; we called them West Indians.

When, a year or so later, I met Muhammad Ali, he also used the N-word. (Apparently it’s okay, so long as it is used “in a friendly way”.)

In London my landlord was a former Indian Army officer – blazer, regimental badge, cavalry-twill trousers, clipped military moustache, son of an Indian admiral. When he invited my flat mate and me to dinner at his home, he asked: “Tell me boys: what do you think about immigration?” We hummed and ahhed a bit, then turned the question on him.

“Keep the buggers out, I say! They come here, taking our jobs…”

We knew what he meant.

‘Friendly’ Maltese blame tourists and immigrants for just about everything – from drinking their water in summer to leaving their rubbish

Caribbeans and Asians were already driving our buses, working in our mills and sweeping the floors at our airports. When I broke my ankle playing tennis, the nurse who treated me was a Bantu; she spoke Swahili (and English).

Back home one weekend I met an Asian in the pub and asked him where he lived. He said: “I own the Paki shop…”

He roared with laughter when I told him I’d heard that Pakistan wasn’t allowed to play international soccer because every time they got a corner, they opened a shop.

We still had bobbies on the streets, in those days. If a young Asian committed some minor street crime the policeman would speak to the head of the community and tell him to keep the youth in order. Problem solved.

Around the same time there was a remarkable influx of native-run restaurants – French and Italian, Indian and Pakistani, (Hong Kong) Chinese, Greek… I also noticed the frequency of Maltese appearing as hotel managers or head waiters. I assume they all had the same “freedom of movement” that I had.

This, then (mine), is the generation of pensioners that analysts blame for Brexit on the basis that we are old, ill-educated, and racist, with a hatred of Europe, a dream of the old colonial days, and a lack of care for the “needs and aspirations” of the young.

Can we get something clear? – The majority of young Brits (I don’t want to exaggerate here, but I’d guess at 99 per cent) are not planning to go to university abroad. Their continental aspirations are about getting to Majorca or Ibiza as cheaply as possible. All they know about the EU is that they heard it reduced roaming charges. Oh, and another majority (I couldn’t guess the number, but of the youngsters I spoke to) didn’t bother to vote.

And then, as a direct result of the “third age” vote, there was a surge of “hate crime” reported in the UK. Most reporters from my day would tell you that specific crime figures can be found to soar or to plummet – according to the story you’re writing. For this one, they had to include “verbal abuse” and “barging” (whatever that means) as evidence of “hate crime”. But clearly the compiler had never been to Scotland (nor, come to that, to Malta).

So where does this leave us? Britons want out of the EU because they are racists and xenophobes? No they are not. They are probably the most tolerant and welcoming nation on earth.

Contrast, if you would, their attitude to foreigners and immigrants with those of the “friendly” Maltese, who blame tourists and immigrants for just about everything – from drinking their water in summer to leaving their rubbish, year-round. Plus, of course, for the increase in crime.

Consider the French word chauvinism – it means “exaggerated or aggressive patriotism”. We use the same word in English, but we apply it to the French, and to their attitude towards their former African colonies. Or to most Parisians, in their attitude to everyone else.

Britons want out of the EU because they want to rule their own kingdom and trade with any country they like (including mainland Europe… and Malta).

That thought will come to Malta, one day. Meanwhile, just keep taking the money, and leave the Brits – your closest friends in Europe – to get on with it.

Revel Barker is an author and publisher.