News from England

"If England was as England seems ........" Well, apologies to Kipling and the England of your dreams? Dream on ...... arrival in Manchester, tattered around the edges, fitted carpets throughout the airport and the train to Liverpool that stops here, there and everywhere wasn't that bad and we shouldn't really complain about everything or there would be too much to complain about; a lick of paint wouldn't go amiss, wall to wall carpeting also in the flat, not sure if that is healthy and buy a coffee for a couple of pounds at Costa's and get twenty minutes on the internet "free".

"Culture shock", that's what I will call it and it always takes a few hours to a couple of days to settle in. Internet is up and running, phone is fine, accommodation is, despite the wall to wall carpeting, fine and the next ten weeks will be spent in Liverpool and welcome to the land of the three wee monkeys, which brings me to the headline in yesterday's 'Independent', which I only managed to refer to today because it took me the largest part of twelve hours to get the connection at "home" established. Oh, stop moaning and get on with the story.

Yes, the story is told by yesterday's headline; have a little read of it and think about it. No real news there really and we all, of course, knew that the war in Iraq was illegal. Still, skimmed and scanned by 'Blighty's' "intellectuals", done and dusted and the same amount of pondering goes into it as into the wall to wall carpeting, the "free" internet if you drink a cup of coffee and the tattiness and for the 'Daily Star' reader there is no pondering whatsoever after all what is there to ponder? Frank Lampard has a new girlfriend.

Oh, and back to Kipling; "If England was as England seems, and not the England of my dreams, but only putty, brass and paint, I'd chuck her, but she ain't."  "Blighty" not even putty, brass and paint 'old bean' ...... built on sand, build on sand!