Steve's been shuffling through my cuttings again, quoting bits of my interviews with Mr Carthy when he speculated on Arthur McBride being set in an East Anglian turkey farm and with Mr Brady who told me in the Enterprise one night that he'd nicked his version from a book while in America (never mentioned Ms Null).

Of course I know the thing's been collected all over the place. I simplified the plot (which is military imperialism) for whoever it was that insisted it was an Irish not an English song and thus somehow inappropriate to the discussion. Point is, it doesn't matter where it's set. It's a political song about a ubiquitous and universal issue. Which is what we are supposed to be talking about. And Alistair Cooke was a really boring old git, Any fule kno that.