Even as late as last night the weather map on television was not encouraging. Great swathes of bright blue covered southern england and that means rain. Wet weather is a fact of life in Britain. British tradition is to start conversations with strangers about the weather. Our country is famous for getting wet. I'm not quite that famous, but I do get wet now and then myself.

The promised downpoor has already passed us by. It's still damp and grey out there, but most people are plodding around in tee-shirts and shorts, typical summer wear. Big C plods into the library foyer wearing his standard rubber flip-flops.

Actually, that's not entirely true. The older people are draping raincoats over the chairs as they sit down for their computer session on a library computer. Experience you see. They've had years of getting caught out by british weather just as much as me. it's the youngsters who generally brave a drenchuing by refusing to wimp out with proper protective clothing.

perhaps they have good reason. The fashion police have taken to drinking at a pub just along the road, a converted ex-cinema with street-side seating which has become popular in Britain lately, in clear violation of every ounce of commonsense when dealing with the British weather. Anyhow, these people do like commenting on passers-by. Sadly I don't score very highly in their estimations and thus run the gauntlet of a drubbing as I stroll by.

Funnily enough I don't drink there. Once you get judged on what what you wear rather than what you do, it's time to move on. Sadly this also includes many employers whose younger managers deem office fashion as the defining factor for success. That means I don't have enough money to socialise with the fashion dummies of the pub down the road. Not that it matters.

Laugh Now!

So much of our culture has become judgemental. We have programs like Big Brother where idiots are voted out of the house if they don't amuse the public sufficiently. Programs like X Factor try to sift through the ranks of the talentless for that next big break, but actually getting there is diminished by the opportunity to judge the ham-fisted numpties and don't we all enjoy their tantrums when their efforts are slighted? Then there's endless programs showing members of the public falling over, bumping into things, or watching helpless while an ordinary day collapses around their ears. Someone has an accident and we're being taught that this is funny?

Listen Now!

Most of the news is concerned with the advance of rebels in Libya and the possible overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi. I must admit, the rantings of that female newsreader in Tripoli as she waved her pistol around and threatened to shoot anyone who came into her studio made me laugh. I'm sure she was serious, but realistically, how long was that hissy fit going to keep rebels armed with automatic rifles at bay?

She is, I 'm afraid, in danger of becoming unfashionable.