Photograph Source: HH58 – CC BY-SA 4.0
It was from the US that the grey squirrel was first introduced to the UK. Two of them have now moved into the attic. I woke to their scurrying the morning after the Inauguration with a Waning Gibbous moon shining on my face. Trump had just pardoned 1600 baseball bat, flagpole and pipe-carrying Capitol rioters. Though not American myself, five years of living there does leave a mark. My lungs emptied with a sigh. And then there were the squirrels.
I put it out that my US friends had gone quiet. An American resident of London working in the arts said he could offer some thoughts if I was planning to write about ‘these times’. Knowing the American would want anonymity but not knowing his views, I fired off some questions for him anyway. This was followed by more research on the grey squirrels brought over here in 1876—or so I now learned—by meddlesome Victorians wanting to liven up their Cheshire woodlands—the red squirrel presumably not grey enough.
This was the American in London’s response to my suggestion there was fear among one or two Brits here about Trump granting six-month security clearances without proper vetting to people presumably gaining access to highly-classified information even pertaining to allies such as the UK: ‘Genuine fear might indicate a high degree of distrust, not to say paranoia, in the foreign partner toward this new administration,’ said the American, though he admitted he did understand the concern. He probably already knew the rumor of British naval secrets having been taken in the past to Mar-a-Lago.
The Victorians were blind to the destructive power of the grey squirrel. They had no clue whatsoever of their effect on the well loved native reds. They almost wiped them out. Details such as the grey squirrel liking to pretend to bury nuts to fool others, or their forgetfulness over where they actually hid them, seemed like lesser evils.
The American openly wondered why we never heard of security fears when it came to ‘a much more alarming breach of procedure’ during the second term of the Obama administration: ‘I presume you’re aware of that,’ he said. ‘You might mention it for context and comparison.’ Frustratingly, he wouldn’t say which breach. (I told him I knew of at least five.) ‘If you were actually aware of the one I mean it would be obvious,’ he said, still not telling. ‘But of course it was little written about here,’ he continued: ‘Brits won’t touch it because it would look bad for BO [Barack Obama]. Hypocrites,’ he added.
With equal pugnacity he later mentioned what he described as ‘the role of British intelligence in helping a constituency in the US create the impression that Trump had been colluding with the Kremlin,’ continuing: ‘We are agreed, aren’t we, that colluding with the Kremlin to influence a US or UK election is wrong, aren’t we?’ I said I thought the so-called Steele Dossier was bad but that Steele wasn’t working for the UK government at the time so I didn’t see what that had to do with anything.
One of the grey squirrels was rummaging between the roof tiles and wall. Subsequent banging on my part proved ineffectual. I knew their point of entry because I had seen them. This was on a ledge by a steep drop. When squirrels do find a place to nest, it becomes very much their territory, and they will protect it at all costs. Especially with little ones in the nest. I suspected there were no little ones just yet but it did sound as though the two prospective parents were assembling a four-poster bed.
The American didn’t know of any fellow Americans who had come over here to get away from the present administration but did mention Ellen DeGeneres fleeing the US for the Cotswolds. ‘Americans in the UK are a different demographic,’ he added. When asked if he had witnessed any friction among Americans here, he said: ‘On Sunday four North Americans (3 US, 1 Canadian; 2 in finance, 1 from a development NGO, 1 in the arts) gathered in a London pub to watch an NFL game.’ He told me the election was discussed politely and very carefully: ‘The sole Trump voter commented to the effect that the American working class had just legally overthrown a corrupt pseudo-aristocracy supported by a vast propaganda machine … and there were no objections to this position.’
I now asked how he felt about Brits receiving pot shots from Right-wing Americans—despite fighting just about every war with them—and he suggested the question was too vague. He did however discuss one or two grievances of his own which out of respect I will not mention here. Still without answering my question, though, he asked how I thought Brits felt after leading the salvation of Europe only to have the EU not give us a trade deal. Or how despite our friendship with the Biden administration, Biden did not give us one either.
‘What pot shots?’ he continued. ‘And what right wingers? Do you mean Elon Musk calling attention to the mass rape of young British women and its cover-up by authorities? Don’t you think he should be thanked?’ I would have pointed out that many Brits were well aware of this ghastly chapter in their recent history, which thankfully had largely ended 12 to 13 years ago, but I had not come to argue—I simply wanted to honour the thoughts of an exiled American living in my city.
The only good news was that the red squirrel population—having decreased dramatically since humans first introduced the grey squirrel—was now stabilising in Scotland. This was due to some pretty lengthy and impressive conservation efforts. I was impressed.
It was only however after I praised the Episcopal bishop of Washington Mariann Budde’s Inaugural sermon in which she asked for mercy for ‘the people in our country who are scared now’ that I felt the full force of the American’s ire: ‘Stop scaring young American and British gay and lesbian folks by falsely giving them the idea that they will lose rights or be endangered by the Trump administration’s policies,’ he said, though I dis not recall doing any such thing. As I understood, the bishop was speaking after numerous concerned and worried LGBTQ+ groups had spoken out about the impact already of Trump’s intentions on their communities right across the US. ‘Stop it,’ repeated the American, for good measure.
While it was unusual to have one’s thoughts subjected to what I suppose amounted to an attempted curtailment, not to mention the gross misrepresentation, the grey squirrels were of greater concern to me now as they continued with their signals and noise. I fear this will not end well.
