Country Scenes

 Walking in Monsal Dale (one of the glorious dales of Derbyshire) on a sunny day a couple of weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see large numbers of undoubtedly brown-skinned people walking the trails, frolicking in the water, and clearly having a high old time. At Monsal Head there was a group of decidedly Salafist appearance – heavily bearded man in grey jellabiya with a bevy of covered women – and even they were giving every appearance of enjoying the view, like everyone else. This is surely a good thing, people from other cultures and backgrounds tasting the traditional pleasures of English life. Ah yes, but do these people not know that the countryside is 'overwhelmingly white' and that hostility, cold shoulders and covert racism await any brown-skinned person who braves a country outing? Have they not read the latest report from the University of Leicester's Centre for Hate Studies (yes, there is such a thing)? It would seem not – but then these reports are not intended to be read by such 'minoritised communities' but to wring the withers of bien-pensant liberals. A funny old world.