[juspimoubbodo]

hi anne, i agree with some of the things that you've said about british people. i think the problems are far worse in the big cities of the north and the midlands- i've always found manchester, liverpool, sheffield, leeds and birmingham particularly depressing. in scotland i'd say glasgow is pretty similar. this is of course the region where the industrial revolution started- manchester was the first industrial city in the world of its kind, and it would have been pretty close to hell on earth in the middle of the 19th century. it just makes me wonder whether the outlook on life from that time has been passed down through the generations. i was thinking before about h.l mecken's quote about love being the 'triumph of imagination over intelligence'. one thing i've noticed is that people in the north of england and the midlands are often very cynical in their nature. there is often no room in their lives for imagination. they don't dream about perfection. or if they did, to share their ideas with others would be showing weakness. they think that to live here you have to be gritty and hard and just get on with life, without expressing too much emotion. it's as if they feel it's weak to love themselves and others, or at least to show this. the north of england was always the powerhouse of the british economy, particularly in the 19th century and it's always been poorer than the south. it's as if the elite intentionally kept the north poor to keep the people slaving away and the machinery going while fat cats in london reaped the benefits.

i don't think this is true of all areas of the country. i was in oxford the other week and that city is certainly more welcoming to the 'dreamers'. yes there is a great deal of snobbery there with the wealth and materialism and high levels of academic intelligence but it was a place where i felt i wasn't as restricted as feel here. the smaller towns and cities further south tend to be more inviting to me. the more rural areas of the country are also a lot more relaxed and people have a more uplifting attitude to life. the wiltshire region where the majority of crop circles appear and stonehenge, avebury etc are located is fascinating to me. for such a small country the uk is beautiful in terms of scenery and the landscape is incredibly varied. i think you may be being a bit cynical about david's conference- there are many spiritually aware people in this country (finding them isn't easy though!) and i'm sure there will be plenty at the london conference. don't forget that london is very accessible for people all over europe, so they won't necessarily just be from the uk.