The National:

WITH the Euros on, House of Lords members have had a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the true meaning of “Global Britain”.

Last week, following England’s win against Germany, we had Tory peer Lord Moylan pushing a Brexiteer agenda with the less-than gracious tweet: “Poor Germans. This wasn’t the Brexit narrative fed them by their press.”

Now another unelected life peer has decided to remind us how lucky we are to have him making laws for us and representing the UK.

At the start of Spain’s clash with Italy last night, Lord John Kilclooney, a former Ulster Unionist Party MP and crossbench life peer, posted: “Amazing that every member of the Italian team sang its National Anthem whereas every single member of the Spanish team remained totally silent. Not one sang the Spanish Anthem!”

As one witty Twitter user noted: “In reply to this tweet, on two levels, there are no words.”

Marcha Real, the Spanish national anthem, is one of the few anthems that does not have lyrics. It probably would have taken Baron Kilclooney five seconds to Google this fact, but why do that when you can embarrass yourself in front of the entire world.

READ MORE: Brexiteers claim Brexit is the reason England beat Germany at Euro 2020

Upon learning the reason behind the silent Spanish players, the lord wrote: “I guessed that was the explanation. Never met a Spanish person before who was ‘tongue tied!’”

The peer was widely mocked for his “unthinking” declaration.

“Astounding ignorance from Lord John. Amazing that you would say this without any knowledge or even a 30 second check - especially since you later say you thought might be the answer,” responded Dave Tooke. “If you really had them you’d have checked. Disingenuous and unthinking.”

Others went on the wind-up. “Doesn’t surprise me,” said another user. “At a fancy restaurant in Spain I ordered a bowl of Gazpacho soup and it arrived stone cold! What sort of people are these your lordship eh?”

“In one of the biggest coincidences in modern sporting history the whole Spanish squad is from an obscure Trappist Monastery near Seville,” joked Ivor Barnez. “They have all taken a vow of silence and communicate through hand gestures and winking. If you watched carefully they all winked the words.”

Ah, these people are entitled to claim up to £323 per day for making decisions on our behalf. What a joy to be part of Global Britain, eh?