“Nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm. Just another Sunday evening.”

Jimmy equates the fact that neither Cliff nor Alison “think” to the larger issue of England as a society having no beliefs or convictions any longer.

“If you’ve no world of your own, it’s rather pleasant to regret the passing of someone else’s.”

Jimmy pities Colonel Redfern, but his pity suggests that it is easy to identify and sympathize with someone else’s sadness when you cannot empathize with it.

“The only way to keep things as much like they always have been as possible, is to make any alternative too much for your poor, tiny brain to grasp.”

Jimmy ridicules Alison’s brother Nigel, and suggests that those incapable of thought or conviction go to great lengths to ensure that they are unbale to understand a more constructive path than the one they are on, in order to protect their own comfort.