You shall have the body

I think I've spoken before about the nature of being English, and the suprising fact that it features very little in people's sense of self when compared to most other races on this island. I can almost guarantee that anyone who is proud of being English is not someone you'd really want to spend an afternoon with

The exception is when you're precipitated into the company of foreigners. It happened to me when I did that stretch in the silver-mines, and it has happened to our lady of Ontario: you become British by contrast, and start living the life that people have always assumed of us anyway. You start making tea at 4 p.m. without quite knowing why, and using words like "decorum" that would never normally occur to you.

Both those things, though, are good. Gentle pleasures and jovial dignity are something to be justifiably proud of. For that matter, so is the English approach to Liberty, best described as The Benefit of the Doubt. It's an attitude that I take to mean assuming the best about people until absolutely forced to abandon the concept.

Transatlantic readers, correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard it said that the expression is unknown across the pond. Appropriate, perhaps, that the US has repealed habeas corpus for certain suspects.

If they ever try to pull shennanigans of that stripe here, you can be assured that I will be on my way.