Martin Amis...

I'm not quite sure where to start with this one. Firstly, sorry to any regular readers for not posting in a while. Don't worry, it's not that I haven't been angry, I've just been very busy.


So...Martin Amis. It would appear that Mr Amis does not like Britain. On the surface of it, I can't blame him. But why, Mr Amis? Why do you not like Britain? Britain is, according to Amis, in a state of "moral decrepitude" and has been since the end of the Second World War. Britain also, since losing its Empire, has become a "power of the second or third order". I see.

But it does not end there. Amis doesn't like the superficiality of the tabloid media. He does not like the culture of celebrity. He does, however, like our "very advanced" political system. He also likes Shakespeare and believes our civil war to have been significantly less horrible than that in France, which, he also notes, occurred 100 years later. I see.

A bit of background is probably necessary here. Martin Amis is soon to be leaving Britain, forever, to start a new life in...

...and here I must interject. You might think that given Amis' list of dislikes, that he would be moving to a country that is better suited to his refined tastes. A place where the media is not dominated by superficial tabloids and where celebrity is not an ambition but a reward for hard work. A place that had an even less horrible civil war even earlier than we did! A place with a more advanced political system. A place where William Shakespeare is still alive, writing plays, poems and all that. Truly, a paradise. You would be wrong. Martin Amis is leaving Britain's moral decrepitude, fallen empire, tabloid sleaze and celebrity obsession to move to...

America.

America. A-merica. I see. Clearly Martin Amis has not done his homework.