I am, in a way, glad that Derb is pessimistic about the British reaction. As John Kekes has pointed out, pessimism is an essential trait of conservatism (as, indeed, any philosophy that recognizes the dark side of man’s nature has to be). That is not to say, of course, that any pessimist is naturally a conservative – I have known plenty of gloomy Trots in my time. Which brings me to the Squidward question: is he a conservative? I think the best clue that he is not comes in the movie, where he tells Plankton that he knows he’s up to no good because, “I listen to Public Radio!” I could add that he is “into” performance art, led a strike at The Krusty Krab and so on. Now Mr Krabs, on the other hand…