Entry 10:

Dear Sarah,

I'm sorry this is rather late. I have been out to lunch, drinking and smoking like anything. I don't know why I do it. It may be a sort of rebellion against American culture. I am thoroughly persuaded that smoking is not good for you, and that drinking to excess is not good for you, either (though we are always being told that drinking wine in moderation fends off heart attacks, and the amount of wine-drinking that is considered moderate keeps being revised upwards by the medical profession). American culture is so seductive and all-pervasive that we don't even recognize it any more. I am sure there are lots of people in Britain who think that Heinz tomato ketchup is a quintessentially British product, part of the rich culinary tradition that Afghans don't like. (It is true that the British invented ketchup in the early 19^th century, but that is by the way.)

I once heard the novelist Martin Amis on the radio being accused of corrupting the English language by using too many Americanisms, and he replied: "Why blame me? When my children come home from school in London saying 'No way, José,' I know I'm not to blame" (or words to that effect). It's definitely not his fault. We are all more Americanized than we realize. We are, nevertheless, dimly aware of the phenomenon, and the only way we know of distinguishing ourselves clearly from the Americans is by pretending not to care whether we live or die. We do care, obviously, but there is enough evidence that you can suddenly drop dead anyway, even while taking tremendous care of yourself, for us to feign indifference to the matter.

I am talking, as you are, about a nonconformist minority. The majority of British people are increasingly obsessed with health, as the newspapers' ever-expanding health sections prove. So why, you ask, do they put up with the ever-growing waiting lists for treatment by the National Health Service? Why don't they "rise up as one and demand an end to what seems like cruel and unusual punishment"? Well, first of all, it is always difficult to get people to rise up as one. Why haven't the people of Northern Ireland, who made their desire for peace massively clear in a referendum, not yet risen up as one to protest the suspension of the peace process? It might make all the difference.

But there is one obvious point about the NHS. It is universal and it is free, and people expect to wait a bit for non-emergency treatment that is free. There is always the alternative of private medical insurance for those who can afford it and don't like to wait. Nevertheless, I think this is more of a political hot potato than you suggest. The length of hospital waiting lists was one of the principal issues in Tony Blair's election campaign and one that is haunting him now, as the cost of reducing them is enormous. It is a problem he thinks he has to crack to guarantee his re-election within the next two years. Before I abandon the subject of health, I should admit to one thing that surprises me. My younger daughter, who is in her 30s, rolls her own cigarettes with tobacco that is described as 100 percent pure and organic. This, apparently, makes smoking quite all right.

We haven't talked about the American primaries. My impression is that most of the British press desperately want George W. Bush to be beaten by Senator John McCain, though I don't see why. Can you throw any light on this? In an admiring interview this morning with Cindy McCain, the Daily Telegraph summed up her husband's youth as follows: "The young McCain had been a hard-drinking womaniser nicknamed 'McNasty,' whose exploits included crashing several aircraft. Among his girl-friends were a Brazilian fashion model and a stripper who cleaned her fingernails with a razor blade." The article also dwelt at length upon Mrs. McCain's past addiction to pills. If he wants the British vote, George W. should perhaps have done more than just dabble a little with cocaine.

Love Alexander xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx