One has been absent from the man cave for ten days and my reprinted column in these pages from the Daily Sceptic on 20 October provides some insight. Mrs Watson and I have been in the United States, first for a week in Missouri and then a weekend in Washington DC.
This was my first time in Missouri although I have been in the mid-west before, in Iowa. We spent the first week in and around a huge military base called Fort Leonard Wood where my son-in-law, seconded to the US Army, is living with our daughter and seven-year-old grandson.
The scale of this place must be seen to be believed. It is bigger – much bigger – than my hometown of Hull. It is about five by six miles in size with a freeway cutting through it, several hotels, three gyms, many churches, supermarkets, elementary schools and a golf course. The military housing for families knocks the slum conditions many soldiers in the UK must endure into a cocked hat. The US looks after its serving military and veterans. We leave many of ours to sleep on the streets, so obsessed are we with housing criminals and scroungers, otherwise known as illegal immigrants.
Our grandson cycles to school unaccompanied, crossing a busy road in the process and coming home safely each evening. There is a distinct lack of perverts and illegal immigrants on the base and drivers do something extraordinary: they observe speed limits and obey road signs. My wife and I had to submit copious details in advance of our visit and to bring hard copies of our ESTA forms with us before being issued with passes for the base. These were checked every time we entered. And we could not enter unaccompanied. It can be done.
Trump country
Missouri is Trump country and they are not afraid to show it with bumper stickers and posters. We visited Branson in the Ozarks where there are at least two shops dedicated to Trump memorabilia. This is also the home of the Dolly Parton Stampede and, oh yes, we went to that. No sign of Dolly though.
Dinner consisted of roast chicken – one each – and then pulled pork and potatoes, in case the chicken was not big enough. To follow there was an apple turnover that could easily have been worn as a hat. For entertainment, apart from horses, bison and longhorn cattle being rounded up, we had chicken chasing and pig racing. I imagine the animal-rights folk being a tad upset if we tried that in the UK. If they tried protesting in Missouri, they would most likely be shot. At the end of the show, when America was being played, people were standing up. Patriotism is a serious business in that part of the USA.
Speaking of getting shot, out in the mid-west guns are freely available. Walmart has its own section and it is not uncommon to see cabinets full of pistols and racks of rifles behind the counter. In one hunting and fishing shop I had a long conversation with one of the chaps at the gun counter.
It seems, if I was willing to part with a few hundred dollars, that I could walk out with a gun and no need to have a gun cabinet in which to lock it. I am still in two minds about whether it is as good an idea as he thought it was. But if I lived in America, would I own a gun? You bet I would.
The contrast with Washington DC – a place totally captured by the Democratic Party – was striking. I have been visiting DC annually for nearly twenty years and I notice changes. One is the increasing number of women in hijabs. I think the USA is growing its own problems with immigration. Sensible colleagues I spoke to confirm the growth of Islam in the country.
Back with a bump
Home here in Blighty, things seem much the same as when I left. Starmer is still in charge and the mass deportation of illegal migrants seems to have faltered. In mid-October we had deported a grand total of 42 people. (Editor: as of yesterday, that’s ‘one out, one back in’ as a deported Channel migrant has found his way back!) We seem a long way from the target of 150,000. Still, if we get on with it and deport 2,000 per day from now until the end of the year we might make it.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
If you enjoy The New Conservative and would like to support our work, please consider buying us a coffee or sharing this piece with your friends – it would really help to keep us going. Thank you!
The above very interesting article contrasts somewhat with “A Letter From America” published at the Daily Sceptic – I cherry pick their daily headlines, which is how I found my way here originally. According to Guy de la Bédoyère’s “Letter”, those who, for various reasons, non-tribal, voted for Trump in the 2024 election, really have fallen hook, line and sinker for the “Trump is a dictator, out to destroy democracy” propaganda. Too many seem to hate Trump to the point where no mention was made of the Gaza peace process underway at that time. It was encouraging, then, to read Roger’s pro-Trump experiences.
I was particularly interested in Roger Watson’s remark that he would, indeed, own a gun if he lived in the USA. It is the gun culture, more than anything else, that would prevent me from living there, even were I a young, gorgeous, slim, glamorous, etc woman, as in days of yore – not!
I understand the theory – vulnerable population if unarmed and Government agencies armed. I fully understand that. But when the Government DID over-step its authority (Covid) I don’t remember any gun battles on the streets. Some visiting Americans explained to me that that was because they were not confronted by armed agents of the State – the kind of enforcement (vaccines etc) was moral, as happened here in the UK – but that if things had developed and the armed soldiers or police HAD sought to enforce the “regulations”, that would have been different. So, I’m still in two minds about the gun culture because I do “get” the argument that if their Second Amendment were repealed then only the “bad guys” have the guns.
In my entire life I’ve only spent one week in America and it was memorable. The scenery – spectacular. But at one dinner to which I was invited, with 15 others around the table, everyone a gun owner, had me promising that whatever the rest of the conversation, no matter how animated the discussion, I would – I assured them – agree with everyone! And I promised myself that I would not return to America: I can enjoy nice scenery around Loch Lomond or up in the Highlands. That’ll do for me!
Sounds awful to me, I’ll be giving the USA a miss no matter what advantages it may have over the UK.