Err, Geraldine, I thought a Seachange was a bit of an advance on a tidal wave? Yes, the anti-war upsurge is a tidal wave towards a flood, but this implies the waters will fall back.

Rupert - (oh the type point has gone big for some reason - I'm not shouting - honest!) -

Seachange? I stand most humbly corrected. I have just looked the word up and shrieked in appropriate horror at my ignorance. (not for the first nor last time I'm sure). I have never really imbude this word with anything more than a rather moderate metaphor gleaned from nautical parlance e.g., a current or wind that sends you drifting off course into new unplanned areas or even those dramatic changes of colour, form and movement that overcome the sea in an instance. It just doesn't sound a strong enough word to carry such strong events - I mean its not got the clout of seaquake or maelstrom. So my 'tidal wave' was meant to take the seachange to its most dramatic and unstoppable course. But of course I was wrong. Here it is in black and white - a 'magical' change from the pen of the Bard through Ariel in The Tempest - of all plays!

As a penance I can either rip up my entire life's works or force myself to read more footnotes or pour myself a large whisky and drown my sorrows.

The whisky has been poured.

I wholly disagree with the notion that an anti-war reading in Cambridge won't impact into a creative writing circle in Accrington - wherever. It's a bit like the rubbishy notion "once a Tory, always a Tory." People - all people - change.

No I said Cambridge or Birkbeck or Buffalo wouldn't invite a writer's group from say Accrington or Hackney or some hick town in America to read side by side in an anti-war gesture of solidarity. It just wouldn't happen in the power house universities - unless organised by the students union in which case it would be classified as ENTS event and not a serious assault on the establishment by the establishment. If it does let me know and I'll pour myself another large whisky.

However your point 'once a tory' just doesn't hold water anymore as trad labour and tory supporters are both in despair as their parties vie for the same ground. Albeit there is most definitely a change in attitude amongst the 'people' . We have seen too many politicians, doctors, priests, police the 'backbone' of the authority finally brought to book after centuries of racist, sexist child awe let cut it short 'little people' abuse that the trust and awe our parents put into these people has been undermined. The seachange has been brewing a long time - it hasn't happened overnight.

As Blair and Bush and IDS (the leader of the opposition for overseas readers) have all taken to banging on about Churchill and fantasying about who is his heir and now Chirac accused of trying to step into the shoes of de Gaulle - a load of insidious evil cobblers if ever - the people move on and the politicians go backwards. To be Churchill you need a war. Or at least a feasible war. What relevance does Churchill have on the wonderful schoolkids that marched yesterday? I look at Bush and Blair and feel like I'm watching 'All Our Yesterdays' with third rate actors. The world most certainly has moved on. But a real seachange? One million Brits went on the march in Feb - 14 million tuned into a soap opera to watch a confession of murder. The signs are good but don't get too optimistic!

Cheery bye,

It's a bit late so haven't checked this unforced errors. I'll pour my whisky in advance.