When Bill Bryson first arrived in England about a quarter of a century ago, landing in Dover on a boat from France in the middle of the night, he slept on a park bench because none of the bed and breakfasts were open. Crawling off to a newsagents in the early morning to buy something to eat, the first thing he saw was a newspaper hoarding being put out with the legend:

“England collapse against Pakistan”.

He had no idea what this meant; but it certainly sounded portentous.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.