I'm afraid again. I'm afraid that - Onion-style - the British people are going to Shrug, Line Up For Fingerprinting. My theory is that, some time between May and August 1997, David Blunkett casually said to one of his new civil servants, 'Mmm, what an interesting texture this pendant of yours has, Ms Halfrek. You know, I wish British people didn't have a fondness for liberty.'

And so we found ourselves in Bizarro land, where suddenly, you could assault people with impunity if you didn't think they were mourning Diana Princess of Wales sincerely enough. You could blockade oil terminals until society was a week away from collapsing, and the police would just sit there and watch you. You could attempt to murder a burglar and get a standing ovation from the Tory party conference. Worst of all, the government could seize on terrorist attacks in order to implement their repressive social agenda.

(I don't know how this theory explains the 1.5 million people who marched against the attack on Iraq in February 2003. Maybe they thought they'd suddenly woken up in Bizarro land too)

Having accepted that I am in Bizarro land, how should I cope? I can take the Cordelia approach - fail to realise that anything has changed, and get myself killed in short order - or the White Hat approach, to try and make even a tiny difference. You have to respect Bizarro Giles, possibly one of the bravest people in the Buffyverse, battling on with no Slayer and his dwindling band of alternate Scoobies.