1. The results of my survey: 40% of respondents said, "Get lost" (not their exact words), 30% said, "Mind your own business", 20% said, waggishly, "It all depends with whom", and the rest said, "What sex life?" My sample was hardly statistically significant, I suppose, but it did make me wonder what the pollsters from the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviours were doing to get so many ready answers to their questions.

2. Anyone returning this week from exile in a sequestered religious community and thus coming fresh to Blair‘s comments on the enduring manifestations of "hooliganism, thuggery and drug dealing" in British society would no doubt have been quite as impressed by his very genuine and deep concern and array of possible solutions to the problem, as so many of us were back in the early '0s, when we first heard him on this theme, deploring the activities of young criminals, and promising "social responsibility for all". Being in opposition at the time, he added waggishly, "Tory philosophy is the most effective yob creation scheme ever devised." Article continues Since then, Blair‘s war on yobs declaration has developed from occasional party piece into more of a long–running show, whose survival, after 11 amazing years, bids fair to rival West End evergreens such as Phantom or Les Mis.