Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

Real life | 10 August 2017

He was defeated by NIMBYs and a Lib-Lab parish council

issue 12 August 2017

Like Steve McQueen gone slightly to seed, the builder boyfriend strode off into the sunset. Nothing becomes him so much as the manner of his leaving. He does so every now and then, this time, perhaps for good. I can’t blame him. As he walked away, his blonde hair shining in the sun, it occurred to me that he is a free spirit. I watched him disappear down the track and thought, it’s a shame to tie him down.

He did his best trying to renovate my wreck of a cottage but inevitably he imploded after assorted petty battles. Being dictated to by a Lib-Lab parish council would take its toll on anyone. It wasn’t just the constant carping about our building materials being an eyesore.

The No Horse-Riding signs banning ponies from the 65 acres of common land the house fronts onto incensed him so much he was on the verge of claiming ancient grazing rights by tethering our horses outside the front gate.

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