New Years Day 2007.

From Milsons Point the further out you travel from the city along the North Shore the more conservative it gets and I am way out in Wahroonga.

Today is the celebration of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia when the separate colonies federated into one nation on New Years Day 1901.

We dine today at the Hartman's in St Ives. This could be any gathering of private school parents at home in the UK or across the world. As Ben's Dad points out the social grouping is not entirely representative of Australia and there is no doubting that this is a very upper middle-class group with all the social hang-ups, political ideologies and cultural identifiers that you find in any social group.

I thoroughly enjoy the conversation at drinks and around the dinner table and as you would expect, more than hold my own in debate.