BREXIT fatigue (soon no doubt to be added to Psychology Today’s list of conditions) has without doubt set in. I detect that even The Conservative Woman’s most loyal readers have had enough and just want it over.
Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen, deal or no deal. So the best thing we can do is uplift your spirits, make you laugh and restore a sense of humanity along the way.
And no one succeeds in that quite like the brilliant Nick Booth. His blog on Friday ‘I’d swap a hundred Jo Swinsons for one Bangladeshi cab driver’ was a wonderful observation on modern British life, culture and values. You can read it here if you missed it.
Original, funny, sad and thought-provoking.
This week my chapeau comes off to you, Nick. And so did those of many of our readers, some of whose comments follow:
Mike Thomas wrote:
You made me cry. This is the essence of Brexit for me, a free country as a beacon to the free world (and less free) come here, get stuck in, make a difference. Free to choose, free to trade, and an example to the world of a just and fair country.
I really hope your cancer is not terminal, we need more people like you to spread that message of hope. My biggest fear about Brexit is not about IF it happens, it is about when it happens and so many voices go quiet thinking we have won.
No, we have to continue to make the case, we are the freedom-loving tolerant democracy-loving patriots now. We have to keep going and secure this wonderful vision for our country. So you better live Nick and spread this vital message, or I will do you in myself :)
Ravenscar wrote:
May God bless you Nick, through the thin and in the thick of great personal trauma, your unbounded good cheer heartens me and indeed, I salute your courage and equanimity, as we say in East Pennineshire: tha’s a good un lad and no mistaking it.
I don’t know you but I sense that, in your forthright candidness and stoic good nature, people will open up to you where, perhaps unto others, they might not. It’s a gift lad, be proud of it.
I will aver that, people are welcome here, if they abide by my nation’s rules, traditions and avowedly acknowledge it.
To many of the rest, please take your leave.
Pitchfork Revolt wrote:
A lovely article, thanks Nick. My wife is a primary school teacher who’s worked in some areas with high deprivation. She says that the immigrant kids are nearly always the best turned out, hardest working pupils. Their parents are grateful to be here and recognise the priceless opportunity a free British education is giving their children.
chrisH wrote:
Another heartfelt, perceptive article from one of CW’s stalwarts. A great writer with big truths on offer with wit and style. We wish you well sir.
The comments divide into those who are moved by Nick himself, as opposed to those who detect a Pollyanna tendency, re immigration.
But it’s Nick’s truth, and is as valid, experienced as much as the dismal, angry people who’ve been shafted by a Roma, or raged at Vanessa Redgrave at Dale Farm, 2011.
It’s not either/or. It’s both/and and depends on where you are and how things appear today. Nick mentions God’s mercy in effect. That’s the muslin filter, and it’s enough.
As a Jesus nut, I could easily say that I don’t need to sail the Zambesi or the Indus any longer, seeing as they’re largely coming to us here. But yet I’m not a Jewish bagel salesgirl on Brick Lane tonight either?
Nick’s to be trusted.
PierrePendre wrote:
Brilliant, every word. I wonder whether any media outlet other than TCW would have published it. Whatever caused the break-up of Nick’s marriage, it couldn’t have been that he couldn’t make her laugh.
39 Pontiac Dream wrote:
Oh I am with you on that, Nick.
If we could swap the Swinsons and the Lammys and Abbotts, I’d be pleased as punch. That said, I think our population, for such a small island, is way too much so I’d be happy kicking out all these people who suffer from white guilt and/or a visceral hatred of their own country and leave it at that.
Boiled Frog wrote:
A heartelt and moving post, full of positivity and courage. May God bless and heal you!
Roy Davey-Jenkins wrote:
May you, and those with whom you come into contact, be strengthened, helped and saved, Nick, by God’s almighty hand.
The last few minutes of the Douglas Murray video on yesterday’s TCW’s item ‘The brilliant and brave Douglas Murray brings us up to date’ makes a point that I think Nick is also making here: DM talks about GRATITUDE.
But it seems one has to pass through trauma and bad times to appreciate what one has; if one has it too easy in life, paradoxically one is more prone to finding fault, airing perceived grievances, and being in general disgruntled. Sunshine is best appreciated after days of low cloud; a walk in the street after a prolonged, enforced bed-rest; the love and companionship of others after bereavement.
Hard times bring us out of a preoccupation with trivia that we see as serious. They give us back our perspective, they give us a clearer vision of things.
And that is a very great blessing, even should it come through adversity.
PS Here endeth the lesson. Sorry!
