If there was a third World War tomorrow, would we as a nation be able to cope anymore? The recent death of World War I veteran Harry Patch recently made me wonder.......and I have to say that I don’t think that we would.

The British were always looked at as being cool and unflappable, keeping our heads when all around us were losing theirs. Both as a nation and as individuals we were always distinguished by our stiff upper lips, our stoic resolve, our calm and understated firmness of purpose. We always prided ourselves on our quiet resilience, but.............

suddenly, without warning we have changed as a nation. Mass hysteria is now what we do best. Add to this public displays of emotion and the dreadful public outpourings of sentimentality seen in recent years, those great waves of national sentiment sloshing around our country, engulfing objectivity, and there is no doubt that things have changed. And changed for the worse.

Just look at the reaction to every minor crisis that we’ve faced over the last couple of decades and you can see that I’m right. Let’s just hope that WWIII is a long time in coming or we’re in deep, deep trouble!