Surprise!

I have a guest contributor for the next few days, son Jeremy who is visiting me en route to Denver, Colorado.

Hi Folks! I'm sure you probably logged on looking for Val /Valerie/ Mum, but normal service will be resumed soon. Mum regularly checks the stats on the blog and if her readership falls then that's probably the end of my writing career. So, please, read to the end. Read it again. Then tell your friends.
(By the way, sorry to digress, but can you tell me the most northerly, southerly, easterly and westerly states in the Union? The answers are quite surprising - read to the end and you will find out. Neat trick, eh? Something I learnt from my mama...)

Brilliant to see Mum looking so good, sprawncey in fact. And I think I know why: a diet of clean wholesome living, good friends, and Fox News (they're not evil, just not very good). My theory is that the elevated heart rate that results from seeing Bill O'Reilly, Shepard Smith and Megyn Kelly in full flow is actually quite a good way to get a cardiovascular workout. A friend once remarked to me that the entire spectrum of European politics would fit inside the US Democratic party, which is why it's so hard for Europeans to understand the Republicans. I'm inclined to agree.

Recently I have been reflecting on the possibility that I may, perhaps in May 2020, be living in a world ruled by Donald Trump (ultra right wing Republican as US President), and Jeremy Corbyn (ultra left wing Socialist as UK Prime Minister). In this scenario it would surely be only a matter of time before the Donald fell out with Britain, if he hasn't already. America might even invade the UK, and because Jeremy Corbyn can't conceive of a situation in which he would deploy the British army good old Blighty becomes the 51st state of the Union.
And that would not necessarily be a bad thing.

On the downside, we lose 1000 years of history, the Royal Family, and Fox News becomes prime time viewing, but there would be some pretty significant pluses. Today, after only 24 hours in the most exciting country on Earth, I discovered a few reasons why it would be great to be American.
First and foremost is the place where mum and I had lunch: Americans know it as IHOP, and to me it is the International House of Pancakes. It was incredible. As Jeremy Clarkson would say, it was the second nicest thing I've ever put in my mouth. Needless to say there was an incredible amount of pancakes, some of which now reside in a handy box in mum's fridge (another thing that we Brits could learn from Americans). It did remind me, though, a little of the Holy Roman Empire (bear with me on this) which, as any good historian knows, was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. So it is with IHOP. It's not International, it's not a House, and it's not made of Pancakes.

Second, and to be serious for a moment, is the fact that the wealthiest country on earth is actually an immigrant country. Millions of people, some of whom were, like my father, refugees, while most were economic migrants, came to the USA. The fact that they made the arduous, hazardous journey at all suggests that the majority were self-starters, not feckless scroungers as migrants are often portrayed. And within a few short centuries they built an incredibly successful, advanced nation, so they weren't really trouble makers either. Granted the US has its problems, including with its current approach to the issue of immigration, but there is surely a lesson for Europe when we see the self-confidence, energy and vitality which built the USA. In Europe we have many fewer people of working age to support our economic growth, as the bulge of baby boomers in our population grows older and retires. It is obvious to me that hard-working immigrants provide at least some of the answer to this challenge (I think perhaps Angela Merkel agrees with me on this point). I particularly like the stirring words of Emma Lazarus inscribed on the statue of liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
That sounds like a friendly, confident, welcoming place to be. So, great welcomes and stirring poetry can be added to the list of reasons we should value Americans.
Of course, for every Emma Lazarus there's a Donald Trump, but on balance I think things work out just fine.
Time to sign off -  hope you've managed to read this far!
Here is the answer to that tricky question posed earlier. The most southerly state in the union is Hawaii, and the most northerly is Alaska, the most westerly is Alaska. And the most easterly is... Alaska. Apparently they have one small island on the other side of the international date line. Tricky.

Thanks for reading, see y'all soon.
Jeremy