The present is a foreign countryside

WHAT, then, is different about being a countryman? Why do we know we are not the same as our urban and suburban friends? We could list lots of small things that mark that difference, but, fundamentally, it is that the outdoors is at the heart of our lives.

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Urban England is about indoors; the town shields people from the elements. They can live, work and play hardly noticing the weather. It's there to be grumbled about, but it's actually peripheral to urban life. In the countryside, however, it's what really matters. That's why most of our politicians simply can't grasp rural reality because it is so far from their daily experience.