Martin, one tiny flaw in your last post is the assumption that England is tolerant. Generally speaking, the ordinary man is not at all tolerant. And in the same way that governments never understand anything about how the ordinary people live, they don't understand their intolerance either.

With all due respect, to me the tragedy of change in Britain (and possibly many other places in the world too) is that it is inevitably becoming more and more like the USA.

A sign of how far we have moved away from what we perceive as the archetypal "English culture" is that my son was at a nightclub in St Albans last week where some trouble broke out and two gunshots were fired. Gun culture didn't start here, it's brought in or copied from elsewhere, and no matter what the gun apologists say, it's not something I welcome.

cheers, Terry