The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Link: Michel Roux, French chef, quits Britain for safer Switzerland – Telegraph.

Michel Roux should have been knighted and feted and given the Freedom of the City of Westminster. Perhaps even elevated to the House of Lords. Instead, after 40 years, the most important fact about him to the Telegraph is that he’s French. This is a man who, with his brother Albert, did more than most to bring food civilisation to our benighted (in culinary terms) islands. I thank him for Le Gavroche which has been a source of (sadly infrequent, given where I live) pure pleasure since I first visited some 20 years ago. I have still to visit, shamefully, The Waterside Inn. Sadly, it’s nowhere near my usual UK stamping grounds but it enhances my life just to know that it’s there.

I hope it’s a very long time before Albert and the young Roux follow suit. They should be given permanent police guards to ensure they feel safe enough to stay. They are much more important to civilisation in England than any politician currently enjoying such protection (with one notable exception).

Enjoy your retirement in Switzerland, chef. I am sorry your adopted homeland isn’t safe any longer. I wish I could disagree with your assessment, but you are quite right. Anyone who can afford retirement to a safer place should do it.