Lord James is small fry. This is a country where, in 1976, the former [thanks, zb] Prime Minister summoned 2 journalists to his office, and declared to them:

"I see myself as a big fat spider in the corner of the room. Sometimes I speak when I’m asleep. You should both listen. Occasionally when we meet, I might tell you to go to the Charing Cross Road and kick a blind man standing on the corner. That blind man may tell you something, lead you somewhere."

Whilst this initially sounds like a hilarious anecdote Harold Wilson did suffer from Alzheimer's disease which causes a sustained and permanent mental deterioration once it sets in. Also there are severe question marks over the veracity of this particular quote, suggesting it was made up in order to promote the sales of a book called 'The Pencourt File.'

Former Prime Minister.

Hearing you say that stirs the kind of flag-waving patriotism in my British mind that is usually reserved for Americans watching live sports.

Right, just Americans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism

I think all nationalities can go a little crazy over sportball.

I would think that flag-waving nationalism is almost entirely unrelated to tearing up the stadium and eating the seats.

The poster above mentioned that US sports spectators get patriotic, not crazy. I've watched people watch Baseball. You'd have to add 1000s of them together to get the calorie burn of one Dutch/English/German hooligan. Calorie intake on the other hand…

I'm afraid you may have missed my point...

Voted you up, since it seems apparent to me that every Western country has sportsball fanaticism.

Hear! Hear!

The House of Lords is to eccentricity as Silicon Valley is to software.

The House of Lords is the one thing I think the Founders ditched from the monarchy which had real value. We got the Supreme Court instead, which resembles a HoL from a dystopian future where only lawyers are trusted to remember the spirit of the nation.

This function of the House of Lords has recently been replaced with a newly created Supreme Court. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_Kin...

Isn't the senate supposed to be the American counterpart to the House of Lords?

Not really, but kinda, when Senators were elected by the State legislatures.