Triumph of the Null

Although the Government has lost great chunks of British colonial history from its archives, and has considerately withheld some of the later bits in case they prove embarrassing to the ghastly Euro-wogs, it has just about managed to preserve an item about the interregnum between the demise of Thatcher and the rise of Blair. A tedious little man had an uninspired turn at the Commonwealth's most interminable game, and afterwards dutifully copied a thank-you note from a 1950s guidebook: "With the jacaranda in full bloom, it is one of the finest cricket venues in the world." Everyone to whom Robert Mugabe spoke about the business was impressed; and now this thrilling chapter in our island story can be told to the public without unduly jeopardising Britain's national security. It is to be hoped that historians will be able to contain themselves, and not all wake up at once.