Peter Jackson column

May 18 2006 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

My son saw it first as we were walking the dog over Tow Law Moor on Saturday.

I turned at his shout and saw, coming low over the hilltop, an aircraft, prop driven, its four engines made a great rumbling roar.

Then I took in its distinctive tail fins and I realised that flying directly overhead, only a few hundred feet above, was a Second World War Lancaster bomber.

Oh, and by the way, it was escorted by a Spitfire and a Hurricane.

After much discussion in the hours following, we decided we had either, (a) been lucky enough to have been in just the right place at the right time when the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight had passed over, or, (b) we had stumbled into some sort of Dr Who style wormhole in the space/time continuum.

Either way, it was quite an experience.

And it does lead me neatly on to my fervent hope the Battle of Britain will not exercise English minds too much this summer, and that English football fans will go to Germany with less belligerent intent than the Lancaster bomber crews.

The Germans are a civilised and polite people, as was demonstrated earlier this week by the story of the knife wielding mugger who accosted a pensioner in the German town of Binz, threatening to stab her unless she handed over her bag.

When she refused, he tried - unsuccessfully - to beg his five euro bus fair home. German police believe he was probably a novice because when making his threats he used the formal and polite form for you - Sie.

So the Germans will be bemused and hurt if our fans indulge in violent affray or merely in drunken yobbishness, goose-stepping and all the rest of their rather tired repertoire.

Such scenes not only harm our reputation in Germany, but all over Europe and our business organisations should be more active in discouraging it. We could take a leaf out of the book of the US group Business for Diplomatic Action, which is urging US businessmen to be more respectful of their hosts and host countries when abroad, to listen more and talk less.

Good advice, but I bet they don't have to advise against indulging in Basil Fawlty silly walks.