Perhaps the reason we find the Down from London (DfL) brigade so difficult to swallow is that they look at the county so many of us have lived in all our lives and, gulp, actually like it.

Because if you scan the comments on KentOnline, or browse community Facebook sites, you would think living in Kent is something akin to torture.

Our green fields are all being turned into sprawling, crime-ridden housing estates. Our beaches are awash with either excrement from sewage spills or asylum-seekers.

Our agricultural land is becoming carpeted in solar farms while our roads are either falling apart or constantly jammed up.

Or at least, that’s what they would have you believe while harking back to a mythical past where the sun always shone, everyone left their front doors open and Kent was, well, simply better.

It is, of course, a nonsense.

There’s an old phrase that says familiarity breeds contempt – and I suspect those of us who have lived in Kent all or most of our lives fall victim to that.

Instead – and brace yourselves – we need to take a leaf out of the DfL’s book.

Because they look at Kent in a way we no longer can. Or perhaps no longer want to.

They see its beauty. They see its peace and tranquillity. They see its safety and friendliness. They see its potential. In short, they see it for what it actually is.

In fact, they are so bewitched by it, they rip up their roots in the big city and opt, instead, to make a life right here. With us.

That’s how good Kent is. We should try remembering that once in a while.

We should remember as we drive between our towns and villages to look out of the car window and drink in the views around us with fresh eyes.

To marvel at the fields, the trees and the rivers, which wind their way through and surround all our major towns and communities.

To take a trip to the coast and remind ourselves how lucky we are to be surrounded by the sea which cools us during the hottest summer months and takes the edge off the cold during the winter; the cliffs which rise and fall, the sand and the shingle.

To walk around the likes of Rochester or Canterbury and drink in the history; marvel at Chatham’s industrial past or Dover’s current one; experience the modern-day revivals of Whitstable, Margate and Folkestone; take in the rolling fields and vistas which surround Ashford and Maidstone or sit and watch the world tick by outside a country or town centre pub or coastal cafe.

It’s all there and there’s nothing easier to do than overlook it; to join in the moaning, adding our voice or comment to a chorus of woe which, if you’re not careful, it’s easy to think Kent is all about.

So, this Christmas, take a moment as you gulp down a mince pie or top up on the eggnog to remember that life in this county is actually pretty damn good, on the whole.

Yes, it has its challenges – like everywhere else in the country– but next time you’re cooing at Cornwall, salivating over Sussex or yearning for Yorkshire, just don’t forget outsiders think just as highly about where you and I live right now.

So let’s all get keen on Kent again – and see the county not through rose-tinted glasses, but DfL lenses.