He reminds me of an American asking me for "typical British things to do", to which I replied that they should go shopping at the Oracle in Reading, have coffee in Starbucks, Nandos for tea and then probably go see an Avengers movie.
I was being a bit deliberate in that. I could have suggested Greggs or Wetherspoons as something more specifically British. But the point is that most stuff people travel for isn't real. It's set up for tourists. When you go to Bourton on the Water you haven't stumbled across a tiny village that has 2 potteries and a perfumers. It is a village that sells to bus loads of tourists and is inhabited by people who work in upper management in software, medicine or financial services in Cheltenham.
He's come here and seen the facade and then hung out with people like the King and other trad cons who are also so out of touch with the reality of the country that they don't understand how unreal their Tolkienesque vision is (and how much the population doesn't desire it). The Shire was poverty and people were desperate to leave it to work in industry in the Victorian era and live in warmer homes with less chance of starvation.
If the rise of Reform and the (brand spanking new!) cult of flag-shagging and scapegoating, to an inordinately laser-focused extent, of the people who are absolutely last on the list of the many people and their attendant behaviours who really are to blame for our current deplorable state, doesn't paint in large blood-red letters over the Pennines the words, 'Denial and Delusion = Derangement', then I don't know what will.
Excellent piece, Fred...thanks!
PS I wish Bill Bryson would go away, and take his parochial American view of the old country with him. Keep Frank Capra in America, where they love that schtick!
Enjoyed this piece. I’ve often wondered why I find the casualUK reddit so repulsive and I think I now understand it: it’s like a degraded manifestation of Bryson’s vision.
He reminds me of an American asking me for "typical British things to do", to which I replied that they should go shopping at the Oracle in Reading, have coffee in Starbucks, Nandos for tea and then probably go see an Avengers movie.
I was being a bit deliberate in that. I could have suggested Greggs or Wetherspoons as something more specifically British. But the point is that most stuff people travel for isn't real. It's set up for tourists. When you go to Bourton on the Water you haven't stumbled across a tiny village that has 2 potteries and a perfumers. It is a village that sells to bus loads of tourists and is inhabited by people who work in upper management in software, medicine or financial services in Cheltenham.
He's come here and seen the facade and then hung out with people like the King and other trad cons who are also so out of touch with the reality of the country that they don't understand how unreal their Tolkienesque vision is (and how much the population doesn't desire it). The Shire was poverty and people were desperate to leave it to work in industry in the Victorian era and live in warmer homes with less chance of starvation.
Bryson did, however, give a very entertaining speech when my daughter graduated from Durham University.
If the rise of Reform and the (brand spanking new!) cult of flag-shagging and scapegoating, to an inordinately laser-focused extent, of the people who are absolutely last on the list of the many people and their attendant behaviours who really are to blame for our current deplorable state, doesn't paint in large blood-red letters over the Pennines the words, 'Denial and Delusion = Derangement', then I don't know what will.
Excellent piece, Fred...thanks!
PS I wish Bill Bryson would go away, and take his parochial American view of the old country with him. Keep Frank Capra in America, where they love that schtick!
Enjoyed this piece. I’ve often wondered why I find the casualUK reddit so repulsive and I think I now understand it: it’s like a degraded manifestation of Bryson’s vision.
ha, sounds dreadful
Arise Sir Bryson, King of the NIMBYs.
Populist is the correct spelling :-)
I love Bill Bryson!