In 1952 London had the worst fog it ever experienced, so bad that it, like many others almost as awful, was known as a Smog (Sooty Fog). But the Underground (MRT) was still running and I got to my work in St Martin’s Lane, just off Trafalgar Square. The smog was so dense you had difficulty seeing your hand in front of your face. They later estimated that some 40,000 people had been seriously affected by the smog – many, in fact, died.
It was far worse than anything Singapore has seen in the nearly fifty years I have lived here.
After work I had to make my way across the Square to the Underground to get home. I knew the route instinctively and, as traffic was at a virtual standstill, it was not too dangerous, if I went carefully. On my way I picked up my evening paper – the Evening Standard.
Holding it is right up to my face, I read the headline. “THICK FOG IN CHANNEL” it announced. There was a sub-headline immediately under it. “CONTINENT ISOLATED” it insisted. I have never been able to discover if this was a genuine sub-editor’s mistake or a witty sub having a laugh at reader’s expense. I do know the sub wasn’t promoted any time soon.
The Tragedy was that almost all readers of the paper agreed with the idiotic conclusion – and, tragically, many of the newspaper readers in Britain still think that way today. Hence, several years later, Brexit, the biggest British political disaster of my lifetime.
There’s a lesson for every Asean country – every country in the world, in fact – in this amusing but sobering story.
It’s not the other country that is isolated in a fog, it’s your country.
In a world so desperately in need of cooperation, may we be preserved from the cataclysmic idea that it’s anything else.
Good morning
John Bittleston
When the world is cracking apart, neighbours need to be treated decently.
Just as they need to treat each other decently, too.
What do you think? [email protected] is the place to wing it. Thank you.
10 September 2026
