Austin I'm not that far removed from being a pom that I don't feel able to call it as I see it. I had 2 pommy grand fathers, & one grand mother. We don't mention the other one, who was from that little green island just west of Wales.

I also own & preserve a couple of quite old & obscure, but very "British" sports cars.

That the opening ceremony was very ordinary is normal for these things. I shudder to think how much money we will waste on the Commonwealth bash coming up on the Gold Coast, & how bad the opening ceremony is likely to be.

When if ever I am silly enough to watch a similar performance from the "wogs", "wops" or "chinks", I will give it what it deserves, what ever that may be.

Did you notice I want more of the athletes, & less tripe. The young athletes, particularly some of the young girls, who were so excited they could not stop dancing, were inspiring, so unlike the pretentious rubbish before it.

As for having any "traditional Aussie inferiority complex", let me assure you, that is one thing no one who knows me has ever accused me of.

I'll admit that I watched it and I enjoyed it - well, most of it. But I can see where you're coming from. I had expected much more - or at least something very different.

The ceremony that they put on was a bit of a surprise. There was none of the optimism or progress that characterise London these days. There was no sense that they were representing a 'world city' or a revitalised England; rather, it harked back to the last time Britain really changed the world, unleashing the beast of industrialisation and quickly losing control of it.

Perhaps the difference between London's ceremony and the show we put on in Sydney related to that. In Sydney, we gave the sense of a city coming of age - renewing itself and embracing the modern world. London gave the sense of a city that had once done that, and was still living in its glory days. I don't know that this is a true representation, but it is one that seems to be popping up quite regularly. England's selection of Engelbert Humperdinck for Eurovision; Rolf Harris at the Queen's Jubilee concert; they keep suggesting that they are living in the past, which is far from the truth. Perhaps the 'establishment' needs some fresh blood - some people who can see glory days ahead of them, rather than those that are long past.

You're right, though: more about sport and less about ... well, pomp. That's what I'd like to see.