Queen Mary 2, terror attacks, fascism, and the BNP

Then in bowled an off-duty Barman Burly carrying camera and tripod. He'd been down on the prom shooting pictures and video of QM2 leaving port. I've asked him to email me a photo of her, which I intend to frame and hang somewhere in my flat.

Big cruise ships - and the QM2 is the world's biggest - are clearly still held in great affection by Joe Public.

There is an irony involved, however, in that cruise liners represent luxury, wealth, opulence, pleasure. Those are things which increasingly evoke distaste, discomfort or envy in the minds of millions of ordinary people for whom luxury, wealth, opulence and pleasure are in very short supply.

Also, I do hope the new cruise liners have got their security sorted, because I bet they are regarded as top targets by the various groups with a gripe against the West and its values. I shouldn't think, for instance, that eco-warriors or Islamist terrorists are kindly disposed to cruise ships - or the people who use them.

Me and Posh Boots, incidentally, are recently returned from a short and much-needed holiday in France. We chilled out in Morlaix, in Brittany, and in Nantes (the old capital of Brittany that is no longer part of the province officially). We spend an enjoyable week in the company of Guy Liner, Posh Boots' brother.

What makes so France appealing is the small scale of its bars and restaurants - unlike UKplc, where pubs and restaurants are too big and, in many cases, part of nasty national or international chains.

Wirral, especially, has way too many HUGE pubs that offer ghastly two-for-one meals shipped in from afar and then microwaved. Two-for-one deals should be banned. For a start they discriminate against single people, who constitute a large minority of our population now.

There are some things I don't like about France, however, and one is that you are never given brown sugar with your coffee. Another is that a glass of wine in a bar is such a ridiculously small measure.

Also, you can't buy liquorice skins for your rolling tobacco.

Generally however, we had a top time in France - thoughflying there was a wearying and unpleasant experience, thanks to Ryanair, and thanks to Speke Airport itself, which is as charmless as the man in whose honour it is now named.

So here we are then, back home, with all the difficulty and pettiness and false imperatives of contemporary British life to cope with once more.

And added to all that, there is nasty little display to look forward to on Question Time tonight. The long-running BBC1 current affairs discussion programme will feature Nick Griffin, MEP and leader of the British National Party, on the panel. I don't know who I find most distasteful, him, or our liberal-fascist political establishment.

No doubt the transmitted show will be a heavily edited recording, so it will be hard to judge what really went on during filming.

I know this much. There has been a militant desire to crush personal freedom in the politics of Britain in recent decades - and a nasty taste for personal vilification has developed too.

But it hasn't been the extreme right in politics that has led us towards sleaziness and fascistic denials of freedom - because they haven't had the power, though I daresay if they did they would be prone to behaving badly.

No, it is the mainstream political parties who have created a kind of amoral liberal fascism. It is they who pushed through the despicable smoking ban in pubs, created laws that restrict freedom of expression, and surrendered our country's sovereignty to the corrupt, undemocratic European Union without bothering to consult the British people.

It is the political establishment which has turned what ought to be a virtue - patriotism and duty to one's country - into something to be mocked and scorned and falsely equated with racism.

I will watch tonight's programme with interest ... for once.