"Operation Masterdom" - subtle name, that

I was going to say - there's an argument the 1660 Restoration was an invasion via Scotland (admittedly one that met no resistance, but still).

Afghanistan wishes to dispute the contention that Britain has never lost a war.

Yeah, but Americans don't care about the Habsburgs, but fighting the British is a key part of their national identity.

The strength of anti-Catholic feeling in general in the US up to, what, the mid-20th century is something we tend to forget here too (not sure if that's also true of the United States itself though), probably because it's basically just disappeared.

I can well imagine the same thing happening between me and my younger sister, leading me to fear this is less a relative sibling age thing and more a "men are chronically disorganised" thing.

I know, but we like to pretend we weren't really doing any oppressing - a bit like middle-class punks, I suppose (I say this as a middle-class Englishman who likes celtic punk music...). But yeah, you don't always need a narrative, sometimes music is enough.

Doubly so in the Telegraph as their splash appears to be, erm, lifted from the Mail?

Probably not a great sign for the Tory leadership candidates that both the Times and the Telegraph have interviews and/or op-eds from them and - with the exception of a tiny bit at the bottom of the Tel - neither have decided to feature them on their front pages.

Indeed - plus I think it's easier for Americans to identify with 'fighting the Brits', given the whole 1776 thing, rather than trying to understand the endlessly complicated central/eastern European story.