Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Only a proper shock can jolt Britain out of comfortable decline

issue 11 February 2023

Fifty years ago I was hitchhiking down the Eastern Seaboard towards Miami overnight. It was midwinter, icy and way, way below zero. Through miscalculation, I had ended up being dropped near the Cross-Bronx Expressway. I walked up a ramp to the elevated carriageway and began trying to thumb another lift.

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