Good Lord!

For weeks now I've been listening to BBC radio 4 all night every night (except when I doze off).  I absolutely love the discussion programs with so many highly educated, clever, witty, people speaking so eloquently, the dramas performed so professionally, the news from all round the world - in fact, I enjoy every single program!  The thought did strike me when I was in Chelsea earlier in the year that there is a level of wealth in UK not experienced in Australia and now I am coming to understand there seems to be a level of educated people that we don't have here, either.  Of course, the difference in population would account for that - you have 62 million people and we have 22 million.

And it almost goes without saying that the opposite applies, too - there are many poor, uneducated people in both UK and here.

Another thing that has really surprised me is the number of people with titles who appear on the programs - Lord This, Baroness That!!!!  In Australia we have the odd Sir, but the title would almost never be used - we are really egalitarian in that respect.

You win some, you lose some...

I must make it clear that it was my Australian friend-who-knows-everything, Infogenium, who told me the other day that one of the men I most admire, Melvyn Bragg (photo) had been made a Labour life peer in 1998.  That's a long time for me not to have known!

Check out Lord Bragg's credentials.  (Must say, though, last time I listened to one of his programs I could barely make out what he was saying - was I almost asleep or was he mumbling?)