The Southampton Boat Show begins on Friday, and the weather forecast looks fine. I can honestly say that this is one Groundhog Day experience I am looking forward to.

For ten days it’s like a separate Principality. How curious it is that this quirky show created on four improbable scraps of land dissected by roads has become such a great exhibition. As one might say in Ireland, if you were trying to get there, you wouldn’t start from here.

Equally oddly, the quarrel over two other major shows in London, either of which ought to be more logical, is starting to look like a squabble over a sickly relative with ‘DNR’ at the end of the bed.