Tell it to the polar bears, girl

Yesterday was an important day for me. July 4th was my late mother's birthday.

On that date here in the U.S., though, they celebrate their freedom from us Brits. Last night I concluded this gave everyone the right to get just as drunk once a year as they do every night in Soho.

Maybe even drunker. One guy I was watching from the vantage point of an excellent Brooklyn restaurant spent 45 minutes trying and failing to get from the door of the bar opposite to the edge of the pavement, which is a good two yards away. I think his master-plan was to cross the road.

But I jest. The 4th of July really gave everyone here the freedom to choose their own politicians, who provide me with a hilarious alternative comedy to the one running in Whitehall.

I follow them carefully, too. For until Barack Obama runs out of all the remaining money here, which may take weeks, U.S. politics will affect us all. So I read with interest a statement from the fragrant Sarah Palin in yesterday's New York Post.

She has resigned as Governor of Alaska, with - experts say - a plan to run for President because, she said, using the Royal "we" usually associated with George 111 and his descendants:

"We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale... I also felt that to embrace the conventional lame duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose."

This astonishing flight of oratory had me recalling with fondness the articulate, witty, crystal clear and altogether inspiring George W. Bush. What the FUCK was she drinking before she shot that lot out?

She would have been the most powerful person in the world if McCain had won and then dropped dead.

Think on that.