It all had to be torn down, but they kept their millions.

Not all, in fact this country is one ugly concrete mess of development abomination wherever you look. God knows there're even listing some of these monstrosities now! The piss reeking disgrace that is Preston Bus Station for Christ's sake. And many a high-rise hell still stands testimony to the same grasping inhumanity that sends the windfarms sprawling over our once beautiful countryside today. But hey, great views from the top, eh?

Odd then that we still retain our images of the picturesque. I still have my Grandmother's little picture of a thatched country farm with geese in the yard. It was a birthday card as I recall - she like it so much she had it framed & hung on the wall of her shoddy post-war Sunderland council semi in one of the roughest estates in the North East. I wonder - do people who live in thatched country cottages have pictures of such estates on their walls?

I hope and pray there is a parallel universe somewhere in which they got it right.