The Yanks are coming!

For the last sixteen years I have worked at one of England’s foremost historical sites. Forgive me if I’m a little reticent about exactly where but given the way things are these days, I don’t wish to give any hostages to fortune. Suffice it to say it’s a highly significant building covering more than six acres of ground and five centuries of history.

As well as our own folk we welcome visitors from all over the world. Over the last decade increasing numbers have come from Russia, Brazil and China as well as the more familiar western Europe, Oz, Canada and, of course, the US.

More recently, in the last eighteen months or so in fact, I’ve slowly become aware of another increase, an interesting one. It’s a guestimate of course, but I would say that the number of visitors from the US has doubled recently. I’ve seen reports in the UK press of an increase of US visitors due to the good exchange rate. They do not, of course, point out that more Americans getting to keep more of their own money is a factor too.

I’ve always said that the Americans are the best, and the worst, of our guests. The majority are great. Engaged, positive, appreciative and painfully polite. Some can be abrupt, highly demanding, often dismissive and rattling off question after question without waiting for the previous question to be answered. We call these people New Yorkers.

Some can be a real delight, visibly moved to be in a location that is part of their history as well as England’s. I’ve sometimes been genuinely moved by encounters with these lovely folk.

There’s something about the current wave of American visitors that has really struck me. The mythology of the leftist media cabal is that right wing, Trump votin’ “deplorable” America doesn’t travel abroad, indeed, doesn’t even bother getting passports. Well, I don’t know how true this was in the past, but I can say with some certainty that it’s not true now.

I’ve had encounters over the last months with folk, some of whom I suspect voted Trump, and some who certainly did, or at least, will do in 2020. One chap recently remarked to me how Trump would get the terrorists as he was “a bad ass”. We’ve had at least one guy in a MAGA hat, that caused a stir among some of my more millennial colleagues. One delightful individual from Brooklyn looked every inch a Hilary type, and indeed described herself as “an old hippie” but was deeply fed up with how things are going and was vehemently and entertainingly pro Trump.

I’m always happy to welcome American guests of whatever persuasion, I don’t make or invite political comment, but many little encounters have given me the impression that much of the increase in our American visitors is made up of good, decent Trump voting types who the left assure us rarely cross State lines, much less leave the US. What’s more, they’re not afraid to show it.

I for one am delighted, as you might expect. Sadly, most of our new visitors will probably not escape the usual tourist traps of London (or the Khanate of the Golden Turd, as I’ve come to think of it). Staying in central London means they will encounter few actual English people. Those that do escape the crapital may well do more than just help our economy by spending their hard-earned cash here. As they travel, talking to English people, they might just start to counteract the relentless anti-Trump hysteria that still has even a sizeable portion of what passes for the right of British politics fooled. We live in hope.

PS

It occurs to me that some of you reading this might be contemplating a trip over the Pond yourselves. If you are, feel free to message me, I’d be delighted to give you advice on some great, but less well known, places to go and tips on how to get the most out of your visit.