Went to see that film last night. Gary's closing speech to the world leaders - the anatomically inventive speech - was what Colin Powell has needed to say for a long while but couldn't. I expressed this view to M., who used to be a lecturer at one of the world's finest International Relations university departments. He agreed, or at any rate didn't shake his head.
I laughed like a drain, anyway. On my way back to the Tube I passed the Italian tourist office, and thought how silly that was - the whole of Western civilisation is an advert for Italian tourism.
And what is Western civilisation? Not far from Bond Street tube there is a branch of McDonalds and, over the way, a fine sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. Western civilisation is where you can contemplate Hepworth's mastery of form and line while eating a Big Mac. We have always needed both, and always will.