Generations to come will look at the last eighteen months or so with amazement. The recent period, sandwiched between the outrage on the World Trade Centre and the war in Iraq, has been staggering in its intensity and its effect on all of our lives.

I was in London last week staying at the magnificent Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane (more in the next travel column) and some scenes struck me as significant in how our world is changing.

One of my favourite constitutionals in the capital is the stroll around Grosvenor Square which has a magic of its own. I don't know whether it's the sylvan peace in the heart of one of the world's great cities, or the echoes which seem to ring from every building. This is the heart of the embassy area, and the brass plaques by the doors and the diplomatic plates on the cars seem to breathe a world of power and mystique.

In the heart of the park in the Square is the Roosevelt memorial, with the great man keeping an eye on the awesome Embassy of the United States of America with its stars and stripes and huge eagle.

In the current climate of terrorist alert, this American slice of the UK has to act differently. It used to be the case that visa applicants or general visitors could simply walk through the front door and state their business. These days the doors are guarded and inaccessible, and even the road in front is fenced off in as a deterrent to a car bomber. If you have business at the Embassy you need to go through an airport type screening for safety's sake. It's a pity that the Square has to be marred this way, but needs must.

I was walking past that fence the other evening at the end of a beautiful day. On the inside of the cordon was a heavily armed man on patrol. Our eyes met, and, being English, I just had to wish him a good evening.

"And to you sir" he said, with exemplary military courtesy.

"Beautiful day we've had" I replied.

"Sure thing" he said, "and a better tomorrow to come".

There were Americans and British on duty inside that fence; a good symbol of the two nations who have just worked together to start the progress of quenching the great evil of the vanquished regime.

Sometimes there are moments in history when, despite the risk and the pain, countries have to take action on behalf of an oppressed people who were too terrified to do it for themselves.

Roosevelt would have approved, and he would pray for the day when Iraqis taste self-governing democracy, and the fences can come down in Grosvenor Square.

And a better tomorrow to come.

Published: 23/04/2003