In the December issue of New English Review, our nostalgic doctor heads off to a small corner of northern Wales to celebrate his 75th birthday. We wholeheartedly wish Theodore Dalrymple a very happy birthday and many more years of good health, wisdom, and joviality!

The Wales of today seems to me savourless, merely a small country in thrall to a failed materialism. For the Wales of today, it seems, material success is all, and yet it repeatedly elects politicians who do everything possible to obstruct such success. Greed and resentment tussle for hegemony, with resentment always winning.