Life however is a vale of tears and it is time for us to return to these beleaguered shores, doing so on a Brittany Ferry across the English Channel. Where exactly the Channel starts or ends is a moot point and the French dodge the issue by calling it the 'Sleeve'.
But the origin of their ferries between Britain and Brittany in France is instructive and shows what can be done when you try, especially by the French. It is French countries that are charged with building our nuclear power stations now we have neither the expertise nor the inclination; and as former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pointed out, the same station costs twice as much to build here as it does there due the planning regulations we cherish (and versus South Korea it's a factor of ten).
But what neither you nor I were aware of was the 'artichoke crisis' of the 1950s when in brief, there turned out to be more than even they could eat. This led to a collapse in prices and the knock-on effects it had on farmers, who together founded a ferry firm to export excess artichokes and onions (you read it right) to the UK too.
And what you get is one of Europe's most successful ferry systems, which you and I used to ferry ourselves between Poole and Cherbourg, and afterward St Malo and Portsmouth, in order to attend the wedding of the year.
But we're back to life, back to reality as the song goes, although on the way there is as ever an incursion of drones for those who look carefully enough. As one such boat arrives in Portsmouth ~ our most historic port in view of its naval connections ~ what is that we see passing through her wake? Only a pair of the UK's unmanned drones, albeit followed by a crewed mother-ship to ensure they don't collide with a boat-load of wedding-guests and artichokes!
(The development of maritime drones is centered upon the naval dockyards of both Portsmouth and Plymouth, partly for historic reasons and partly because politicians haven't the imagination to look elsewhere. Nor do we have the imagination to base their development on anything other than the sort of inflatables and motors we'd use for picnics at the seaside.)
Imagination is not something the French have ever lacked, however, and among the cabins of the vessel transporting our precious selves back home, no less than a view of the future inspired by Regent's electrification of (flying) boats over on the far side of the Atlantic!
