Letter: Dull Britannia
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Living here in the depths of rural France with calves gambolling in the fields around us (rather than in the crates that the animal "rights" people would have you believe), I am struck by the regimentation and control of people that obtains in England.
On the odd occasions when I listen to Radio 4 and find that it is not dominated by cricket or Americans, there always seems to be someone pressing for someone else's activities to be banned or "frowning upon" them. Nanny Cunningham has decided that people are too stupid to choose for themselves whether they eat beef on the bone, and Nanny Rooker has decided the same thing about unpasteurised milk (which is freely available in supermarkets here).
Furthermore, life in England appears to be one long, continuous battle - there is the fight against crime, the fight against drugs, the fight against smoking, the fight against being happy.... You name it and there is a "fight" against it.
Is it any wonder that when people cross the Channel and find that there is no one "frowning upon" them, they kick over the traces and behave as they did in Marseille recently or as they frequently do in Calais and other French Channel ports? This must be why it is that the people who barely speak above a whisper in restaurants in England (if they can afford them, that is) are the loudest and most raucous customers in restaurants across the Channel. It must be this rather than a surfeit of alcohol which makes a lot of the English abroad behave in such an uncouth and obnoxious manner.
ADRIAN CROFTON
Cunlhat, France
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments