A recent press trip to Shanghai showed me that our friends prefer European Britain to Global Britain

One of the many joys of being a journalist is that you sometimes get invited on important business trips abroad, or “freebies” as we like to call them. I’ve been on quite a few, from assignments for the travel desk to IMF international annual meetings to Davos to prestigious motor shows. Actually, far from fun-filled frolics, they are usually a living hell, testing a hack’s stamina to file copy on time amid nightmarish logistical abilities.

Even so, inevitably there’s some time to meet and chat with other journalists from all over the planet, say, over dinner or a few drinks. Usually these are very pleasant affairs, but my last job, attending the Shanghai International Motor Show, had a slightly sweet and sour flavour. Our hosts were Shanghai Motor, the sixth biggest manufacturer in the world churning out seven million cars last year, though you may not yet have heard of them. Their hospitality was excellent but I am sorry to say the after-dinner chat was a bit embarrassing, for me. You see, as well as the usual exchange of tips about holidays and vitriol about Rupert Murdoch – a literally universally despised figure even among his own staffers – the talk eventually turned to Brexit. And when it did I found myself being mocked – mocked! – by Sri Lankans, Jordanians, Filipinos, Australians and almost everyone else. “What are you guys doing?” “What’s happening?” “It’s bad for your car industry.” “You must be mad.” “I feel sorry for Madame May.” Well, yes.

The Chinese were more polite and circumspect, but possibly because “the UK”, as everyone refers to Britain, is of such little commercial consequence these days to this mega peer. The only thing, by the way, that the Chinese seem to import from Britain is Scotch and luxury cars and an enthusiasm for Benedict Cumberbatch, whose name sometimes gets lost in translation.

Anyway it was a humbling experience up there in the 47th-floor bar of one of Shanghai’s marching army of skyscraper fancy hotels. It confirmed what some Swedish businesspeople said to me not so long ago at another event, quite candidly and strikingly, that Britain’s reputation is sinking lower every day. And so it is – especially among nations that are naturally friendly towards this country. You feel as though something precious is being lost, or soon could be, through Brexit. The world seems to prefer European Britain to Global Britain. Irony.

I thought it best not to mention that I’d voted Leave. Global humiliation is not the Brexit I voted for, you see.

Yours,

Sean O’Grady

Managing editor