The front page of the Daily Telegraph website made me smile this morning.

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Why are so many Britons emigrating?
Is British drinking out of control?

Interesting to speculate if there’s an arrow of causation there, and if so, which way it points. Are Brits fleeing their country because they are tired of stepping around the pools of vomit that decorate British streets from late evening on? Or is the heroic drinking being done by people who despair of ever getting out of the place?

The long comment thread following the first of those stories, by the way, shows Brits doing the one thing at which they are still world-beaters: complaining. That thread also illustrates a little-understood feature of the British national character: As much as we hate foreigners, we hate each other far more. Hence: “An Englishman’s never at home except when he’s abroad.”