THE received wisdom is that any minister who goes up against nurses is a lone lemming, headed over a cliff.

THE worst moment for an after-dinner speaker is the point when a silver teaspoon is clanged off a glass for silence.

THE other papers presented to this conference on The Disappeared Civilisations deal with historic or pre-historic cultures which became extinct: Easter Island and the Inca empire in Peru among them.

HE never glanced up. Never. It was head down all the way. No telling glances across at the opposition. No gesture to hammer home a point. Not a single behaviour that the camera would like.