"Brimstone" gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

That may or may not be the case down south. However, in this country
the figures I have seen indicated that this was not the case.

Umm, you're in the same country I am - and by "down south", I presume
you're meaning the portion of that country which houses somewhere more
than 90% of the population of the country?

Errrr, not if he's in Edinburgh. That's in a different country to where
you say you live (somewhere on the outer reaches of the (sadly
truncated) Metropolitan Railway IIRC).

Funny. I thought both were definitely in the United Kingdom.