Dickens is an almost wholly good thing: a child brought up in poverty - his father was in the debtors' prison - who made an extraordinary amount of money from his writings and devoted himself to philanthropy. At one stage he ran a home for fallen women, who had to agree, at the end of their stay, to emigrate.
Like many Brits, I had Dickens forced on me as a child. His long winded prose style and plotting together, perhaps, with the books' being written for serialisation (he was thus paid by the column inch) make him somewhat indigestible and unfit for children. In later life, and with an understanding of the social reform he campaigned for, Dickens can be most enjoyable.
Today is also the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union and paved the way for the disastrous monetary union. An indication of how the thing is run is that a short time earlier the bank I was working for received a call asking to borrow money. We had to point out that the EU did not yet exist and so of course we couldn't lend them money. They were outraged: obviously having no intention of letting democracy get in their way.
Now they all have second thoughts. 'Marry in haste, repent at leisure', the saying goes, and the same is true for treaties.
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