Last day in England — we fly to Rome this afternoon. Did a tour of the

relatives, clockwise round the Midlands. Stayed one night on a “bed and

breakfast” farm in North Wiltshire, to give the kids a taste of the English

countryside. Real English country people, ripe local accents, an old lady

(her husband died last year) with four daughters. I asked the old

lady what she thought of Swindon, the nearest big town, once famous for

making railroad rolling stock, now a high-tech center. She, with the

slightly scandalized air of someone just asked to give an opinion about the

local pool hall: “Ooh, I couldn’t say. Never go there meself.” The

distance is less than ten miles.

Stayed last night at my niece’s house in southeast London. Coming home

late-ish, got the Theodore Dalrymple experience. The Derbs were walking

along a quiet residential street when we passed a young man. He took

exception to something he thought he’d heard me say and started yelling

obscene abuse at us. I tried to calm him down, but the abuse just got

worse, so we walked off.

My sister, in our home town (Northampton): “We don’t go into the town

center if we can help it. It’s got very bad. The town council had the idea

to bring a lot of ‘asylum seekers’ in, and the young men swagger about in

gangs, pushing people off the sidewalk and shoplifting.” These are

apparently people from the old Yugoslavia — the Kosovans are said to be the

worst.

Surprisingly little emotion about the subway bombings. Most commonly heard:

“We knew it was coming.” The only expressions of anger one hears are

directed at George Bush, widely regarded as a low-IQ bumbler in the grip of

religious mania. The “God spot” on Radio Four Thursday morning was

delivered by the (Anglican) Bishop of Southwark. He fiercely condemned

Islamic extremists who blow up people on buses, then just as fiercely (my

impression was a bit more fiercely) condemned those “other extremists,

self-styled ‘Christians,’ who look forward to a nuclear war because they

believe it will bring on the Rapture.” This is a bishop in the established

church, with a seat in the House of Lords. He probably speaks for millions.

Took a tour of Westminster Abbey, showed Nellie the tomb of the queen she

was named after, Eleanor of Castile. When the kids were abbeyed out (which

didn’t take long), we went for a ride on the London Eye — a huge new ferris

wheel on the south bank of the Thames, opposite the palace of Westminster.

Nice experience, terrific views over London, waiting time negligible.