Free America

Petronella Wyatt thinks that the Americans have de-politically corrected themselves. She says that the Americans think there are:

more important things in life than hectoring people about their social behaviour.

and she suggests that the opposite is happening in Blighty.

The most extreme example of this unnatural shift is hunting. As a ban on hunting with hounds steals upon us, the Americans are hunting more than ever. This has been Virginia National Hunt Week, during which packs from all over the state take part in meets on the same day. I asked one of the participants why there were no anti-hunting protesters around wearing their placards and shouting the familiar abuse. He looked at me as if I had asked why there was not a herd of elephant nearby. ‘We don’t have any of those,’ he remarked. ‘No one ever disrupts a meet.’ Indeed, a group of jolly-looking cameramen were filming the hunt for a television station and, untypically for media types, were shouting out pleasantries as we rode past.

What about the guns Petronella, tell us about the guns.

Americans have become obsessed with the need to protect themselves. You can walk into a shop here — merely produce ID and proof of residence — and walk off with a shotgun. I nearly walked off with a mother-of-pearl-handled pistol — purely for aesthetic purposes — then remembered that there might be a tad of trouble getting it through customs.

Mother-of-pearl, very tasteful. One day I would like to visit this America. It sounds divine.

Posted by JohnJo at November 3, 2003 03:39 PM | TrackBack