Some cynics have even pointed out that the fightback from a 10-3 deficit at half-time was inspired by the overwhelmingly South African Mike Catt.In all other countries, Catt's essential foreignness would only be highlighted had he failed; in England it is because he succeeded that we remind ourselves he is not truly one of us. Those delusions of superiority are by no means straightforward; glorious defeat is considered more wholesome than underwhelming victory. So what is this gnashing of teeth I hear, following England's ill-deserved but ultimately emphatic 28-17 victory over Wales on Sunday?Yesterday's back-page headlines - The Independent's referred to coach Clive Woodward's "fury" with England's "follies" - underlined another complexity in the English character. This almost Darwinian sense of supremacy has been fed by the rise and rise of the England rugby union team, which thundered its way to the Six Nations Grand Slam earlier in the year and entered the current World Cup as the bookmakers' favourite. The English have their delusions of superiority, the Scots their sense of victimhood, the Welsh their pessimism laced with hope, the Irish their optimism laced with despair I'm not sure about the Manx. Perhaps a combination of all four. Rarely are these characteristics magnified more than in the sporting arena.

We English think we should be pre-eminent in whatever sporting endeavour we undertake: that our cricketers have been under the Australian cosh for so long seems like a reversal of the natural order of things. It's one thing to be British, quite another to be English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish Or Manx, for that matter. What a strange, schizophrenic nation we are Or nations Wherein, of course, lies the schizophrenia. "Well, if I did, I did."More of this some other time More from Miles Kington. "I don't remember agreeing to let the dreadful IDS write anything...""We agreed on this in Episode 1,364, chief," said Angela. "You chuckled and said, 'OK, as long as we get the Widdecombe character to give it a stinking review...'""Did I?" said the boss. Look, isn't Gordon's wife about to have a baby?""Yes," said the boss."Is it going to be a boy or girl?" said the younger woman."Boy, I think.""Never mind about that," said red beard, "the point is that the Gordon character is going to be all tied up at home, which will be an ace moment for Tony to outmanoeuvre him.""And the motive?" said the boss.

"Tony has to have a motive for wanting to put Gordon in his place, you know.""I've thought of that," said red beard happily. "Because Tony wants Peter back in.""Peter?" said the boss."Peter Mandelson!" said red beard "The old schemer! The power behind the throne The rat in the arras The greasy pole from Hartlepool. He's overdue for a comeback.""I rather like that," said the boss "Do a draft script and let's see how it looks. Any other ideas? Angela - what subplots have we got coming to the boil?""Gay bishops," she read from a list There was a general groan "A new thriller written by IDS...""What!?" said the boss. Couldn't we have it enter a rough period for a little while?""How?" said the strict woman."Well, let's say they have a public spat over the Euro...""No," said the boss "No Euro.

Viewer research shows that we lose up to a million viewers each time the Euro comes back in the script.""OK," said red beard, "then maybe we could have Tony snubbing Gordon by.. by .. forbidding him a seat on the National Executive. We always seem to go back to the old Granita restaurant meeting and the Faustian deal they struck then, or we look forward to the day when Tony might step down - what we don't do is develop the relationship now. Doc?""You could give him a heart flutter," said the man addressed as Doc "Report to hospital with chest pains Slight heart flutter Warning shot Nothing serious.""OK, we'll go for that. Now, how about the old Tony/Gordon rivalry? We've left that on the back burner for a long while.""I've been thinking about that," said red beard," and it strikes me that we've made a slight mistake rooting it so much in the past. We can't push him much further.""If all the spotlight is on IDS, how are we going to remind viewers that Tony is still around?" said a man with a bow-tie."Give him a nervous breakdown," said red beard "Overwork, stress, etc Crack-up Major crisis at heart of government Power struggle.

Prescott steps in, finds Gordon there first...""Mmmm," said the man who was clearly in charge, as he had the only armchair "Too drastic A reminder of his mortality would do. "By who?""Ken Clarke," said red-bearded man."No," said a strict-looking woman "It's got to be the awful Michael Howard. Then we can rewrite him in office at our leisure.""I still have a soft spot for the Spanish chap, what's his name, Portillo," said a younger woman. "If he doesn't come back now, we might as well write him out of the series.""Oh, for God's sake, Dot," said the red beard, "we let you have your fun writing a episode featuring him as a TV single mum. I never thought the viewers would swallow that, but they did. "It goes out every day! In all the papers! On every channel!""Really?" I said, rather stupidly.