Tommy... at work and at, er, play

Nottlesby's comments on the behaviour of the Hun after dark - or lack of it - will no doubt prove crucial in our planning for The Big Push. Parachutes after dark, spies must cross at the lights, that sort of thing... no doubt the day will come when the German populace will regret not having fixed its judgemental gaze more sternly upon his foreign shame. But for now it has set me thinking upon the difference between the orderly street life he describes, and the welter of confusion and noise that is the London streetscape. In the picture here attached, for example, we see a picturesque group of local larrikins about their (undoubtedly dubious) business.

The British are an unimposing lot generally, and much less inclined to make their judgement of others' behaviour public than are their antipodean cousins. They cleave to this old-fashioned manner despite a continuing proliferation of unsightly public behaviour, from cockney louts arguing with invisible antagonists on their infernal mobile devices, to groups of slouching young men (and Ladies!) wandering down the street drinking cheap alcohol from the bottle. Indeed, until this June there had been no law about drinking on that most famous of British institutions, the London Underground. Here we are in the centre of the civilised world, and yet one can bring a can of cheap lager onto the train and drink it in front of one's betters! (Well, others can - if I do say so modestly, I have no betters once I set foot amongst the hoi polloi, nor do I generally hold with drinking publicly except in parks). From June of course, our new wowser mayor (one of the upper classes no doubt, but such a terrible phillistine) will ban such practice, and I have it on good authority that various-ne'er do-wells are organising a huge cocktail party for the tube to take place this Saturday evening...

Of course, after years of being harassed on the streets of old sydney town for the height of one's top hat or the cut of one's lapel (and by the very lowest class of bravo, I hasten to add), I find all this reserve very refreshing. Sadly it is not accompanied by the full suite of good manners which attend upon the quiet acceptance of the Japanese; nor is it mirrored in the tabloid press, who constantly set themselves to stand in judgement upon every facet of British daily life, damn their eyes. But it pleases me to dress according to the custom I deserve and not to be harangued for not wearing clashing stripes, or whatever the latest foolish fad is amongst the lower orders.

Another amusing aspect of all this good-mannered forebearance is the generally riotous behaviour of the local youths, who are quaintly mannered, shall we say, but rather outrageous at times. I rather think the odd lecture from their elders (or at least their parents) might be in order. No doubt one has read of the recent knife-attacks and the like, which of course I have not witnessed. But certainly groups of vulgar youths are wont to run about being loud and obtrusive. However, they seem mostly harmless, unlike their antipodean equivalents, who brazenly insult their betters. How great the comparison, though, between a great city where the younger members of the populace run rampant, uncommented upon, and Nottlesby's European idyll, where the majority of these little tyks are not only not heard, but not even seen!