This is the country we should have been

What a difference that Spanish wind makes. This is the country we should have been. In precisely the same way JFK should have ducked, vegetarians forcing you to eat their oomsk at supper should be more apologetic, Olivia Williams should have been my wife, Amy Winehouse should be given a seventh chance, Concorde should still be flying, Steely Dan and not the Stones should have "won" the 70s, every car should have the style of a Reliant Scimitar, Fernet Branca should stay forever in the bottle. Britain should have been nearer the Med.

Lots of people came to Brighton yesterday. At an educated guess – I spoke to many Americans in the sunshine – it was probably like 146.5 billion. There was a perfect and an unfogged atmosphere. Many friendships, much fun. The beach was as clogged as those documentaries you see about crabs. Crabs clogging beaches. But I really can't stress it enough – there was an utter forgetitude about phones, messages, phoney urgencies. This happens in cold clamped clenched Britain, where we have to make ourselves alive by e-connecting. When we actually do connect, there's no need.

Euan Ferguson

The Observer, Sunday 10 April 2011