No, it isn't just a matter of not biting the hand with the credit card. It's also a matter of being friendly to strangers, which is pretty common in Ireland, and I imagine in Scotland, and that's genuine friendliness.

I am pretty certain that, if I'd run into Doug on his travels over here, I would have avoided talking about those kinds of things, once I'd twigged how he felt about them, because it would just be an unfriendly way of treating a guest. Here on the Mudcat it's different, because we are all at home here.

Now I suspect that if some other Mudcatters were to make the same trip they would find a whole lot of people who'd be happy to share their opinion about Bush, and probably buy them a drink to show it wasn't a matter of having anything against Americans.

What people do, more especially in Ireland, is test out where the visitor stands before deciding how open to be about this sort of stuff. Some people think there is something dishonest about that. I think it's just good manners.