Wednesday is St George’s Day, so these notes have an English theme. I will try to make it a celebration: this is not a moment to dwell on knife crime, binge drinking, underperforming schools and disappearing post offices.

“Englishness” seems to me to be still valued, though it is un-English to admit it. “England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality,” wrote George Orwell. That view is belied by the behaviour of the English, which suggests an underlying pride.