Morrissey and NME are finally done arguing over that one thing Morrissey said that was kind of racist

Like a sad-veiled bride forced to withstand the loutish cruelty of a world without sympathy, just because she says racist things, Morrissey has spent much of the past five years battling the NME's 2007 implication that he believes England's identity has been lost to a flood of immigrants, an implication it made by quoting Morrissey saying pretty much exactly that. But at last, we know it's over: Morrissey has finally accepted the magazine's recent apology, with an NME representative telling Music Week that the two parties have now "buried the hatchet,"  and that the singer has dropped his libel case without asking for any damages, legal costs, or any other form of settlement, besides the embrace of a gentle word. This resolution to a story that has dragged on for almost exactly as long as The Smiths were together is expected to bring to an end all public perception that Morrissey harbors any sort of hateful feelings and is prone to saying instantly regrettable things, provided the public has only paid attention to this specific incident and Morrissey doesn't say anything for the rest of his life.