England - To an extent, I agree so much with the sentiment expressed by A. Peterson over the Old Town's rowdy beer gardens. I also like a quiet place to have a quiet drink with my (usually) quiet friends.
I am an Englishman living in the North of England and work closely with young people from Latvia and Lithuania. They are wonderful when they are sober and I love them even when they are not. They are often not, and, as I have said before in your excellent column, often drive their cars drunk, without insurance or licence. They accept their punishment with stoic resignation when caught but must stop doing it! They are EU citizens and I do not refer to them as foreigners. I might well feel the hand of my local "ment" on my collar if I did! They all work to the seventh sweat, send money home to their mums and have a great sense of fun.
I personally have a strong feeling of debt toward my beloved Latvians and Lithuanians in England. We in the West betrayed them badly after WWII and I hope we can at last help them recover from the stultifying stagnation we once subjected them to.I am prepared to tolerate their sometimes reckless behavior in the meantime and Ms. Peterson should consider whether her xenophobia is the best way forward. You do have more to offer than cheap beer (Is it cheap? I didn't notice that) and I know that many tourists are coming to your lovely country to enjoy these things too.
