The fact that cllr and company had not met Ms. Thatcher before this reflects the fact that he, like most of the rest of us mudcatters, has lived a life far from the centers of power.

As an American, though I am far from the halls habited by Ms. Thatcher and Mr. Benn, I have the sense that, however they may violently differ on, say, folk music, as fellow travellers, they speak, or spoke, to one another with a standardized sort of civility. So it should be here.

If we differ on politics, well, we're not politicians, we are fellow travellers of another sort, and we shouldn't strain that bond for the sake of things that we have left to others to work out.

Also, I must remind our sometimes preoccupied brethren from the UK that though they may be accustomed to certain things like Eliza Carthy and certain "Anglo-Saxonisms", they are not common currency with most of us over here--