"I miss it a lot," Major Pricilla said of the community where she spent sleepless nights promoting health guidance to families who refused to engage with public courses. "The people there call me, they come here, it's nice.

Much blood and treasure has been spent to maintain our independence over the last 950 years.?To surrender now and allow ourselves to be totally subjugated to be governed by those we could neither elect nor sacked would be a betrayal of our history and generations unborn.David Cameron will be in New York on Wednesday for the UN General Assembly. His main preoccupation will likely be the Palestinian statehood vote and how to play the British position. He will also hold talks with Barack Obama and others. But he will also find time to launch a new initiative to promote Britain as a place to do business. The 'Great' campaign is built on a series of elegant posters promoting different aspects of the Great in Britain - knowledge, heritage, sport, shopping, countryside, entrepreneurs, creativity and so on, alongside images of the Olympic velodrome, Richard Branson, Henry VIII and the like. The ad agency Mother came up with the idea. The Prime Minister wants to capitalise on next year when the eyes of the world - as the announcers say - will be on Britain, by bringing together the promotional work government departments were planning. The campaign will only appear abroad, and No10 is hosting a reception for CEOs and chairmen of big companies tonight to drum up some cash to pay for it. The launchis being held at the New York stock exchange, and Mr Cameron has been offered a chance to ring the closing bell on the day's session. His meeting with the President may get in the way, but No10 are sorely tempted.Buried in the * in today's FT magazine is a telling snippet about relations between Conservatives and their Americans cousins on the Republican right. In terms, the Tory leader seems to be saying that the yanks have gone a bit crazy and abandoned the mainstream. They are going in a "very culture war direction". Reading between the lines - for that is what we do - he patently does not like the look and sound of the Tea Party movement, and worries that they are taking American conservatives down a cul-de-sac. Bad news for those Tories who quite fancy replicating the Tea Party thing on this side of the pond. Judge for yourself - here is the full extract:

Magdi Allam was converted in St Peter's BasilicaMagdi Allam, a maverick Muslim journalist loathed by his community for his support for the right of Israel to exist, is now a Christian . That gives Muslims yet another reason to hate him even, perhaps to kill him. Mr Allam is very brave to make his conversion so publicly, in St Peter's Basilica. The Holy Father, too, has shown courage. Some of the Vatican's inter-faith functionaries would much rather have done this quietly (if at all).The Pope is sending out a potent message to Islam: you are not the only religion that seeks to convert all mankind. Only, these days, we do it peacefully.I spent a few hours in the Commons earlier, where there is far from universal enthusiasm for the Prime Minister's departmental business plans. The staging for one caused great hilarity, with the Cabinet and various dragooned permanent secretaries lined up on bleachers behind three podiums set out for the governmental triumvirate of Cameron, Clegg and GOD. They kept their v serious faces on while the PM told the summoned ranks of senior civil servants what the plans are all about.

When I wrote all this a couple of years ago in , my polemical A to Z of everything wrong with Blair's and Brown's Britain, I did think I was erring slightly towards the Dystopian.

Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Jamie Elliott, 13 George Pisi, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 George North, 10 Steve Myler, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Samu Manoa, 7 Phil Dowson, 6 Tom Wood, 5 Christian Day, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Dylan Hartley (capt), 1 Alex Waller,