Australians of my age were born British citizens, the Australian Citizenship Act not having come into force until 1948. As such, we lived in a very different, monocultural, definitely colonial world.
A memory lingers. I was eight and inhabitant of a small country town when I ate lunch at the house of one of my mother's friends. Lunch was the predictable chop and three veg. More than one chop, actually. The meal was nearing its end when I framed a request. 'Please, Mrs Mac, may I pick my chop bones?' This very correct matron, of well-documented Scottish descent, did not hesitate in her reply. 'The Queen of England may pick her chop bones if she does it with one hand.'
And that was it, a symbol and a summary: Britain set the standard of conduct. Nobody doubted that a gentleman's word was his bond, the emphasis was on truth and honour, and good manners were essential: we were drilled in manners and good behaviour, in being steady and sound, every minute of our young lives.
We grew up eventually, although in my case the process was a long one. Even now my friends occasionally cry, 'For Heaven's sake, stop expecting things!' — things usually being old standards of courtesy. Call me an old snowflake, but perhaps I reached true and disappointing maturity only the other day, when I was truly appalled at the behaviour of the 29 Brexit members of the European Parliament.
The opening of the new five-year term was in progress, and a celebratory anthem, Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy', was played. During this performance, the Brexit MEPs, all 29 of them, turned their backs, thus insulting the Parliament, the young and immensely talented musicians, and even Beethoven himself. They clearly did not realise they were demeaning themselves by acting in this fashion.
Leader Nigel Farage engaged in a typical paranoid rant after the session, saying that 'the cat was out of the bag', as the EU clearly aspires to nationhood, and that he and his party would not show respect to foreign anthems imposed upon them. The Liberal Democrat MEPs, 16 in number, did nothing to improve the far from shining hour by wearing yellow anti-Brexit t-shirts printed with an impolite slogan.
As I moan about the lack of civility in modern life, I also moan about the neglect of the study of history. President Trump's recent idea that revolutionary troops took over airports in