My friend Matthew is a token male straight in the world of fashion (but no, Ms Savant, not another metrosexual). Just before Christmas he phoned me from a clothes-shop queue on his mobile. He was so bored he had a half-hour-plus conversation with me at cross-network rates. At one point I told him that The Telegraph had recently interviewed one of his clients and that I still had the cutting for him to read if he was interested. Let’s just say that she’s very high up in a multinational famed for the beigeness of its legwear.

He replied that he liked her and thought she was a hell of a lot smarter than most of the people he knew in the business. Then he undermined that compliment somewhat by telling me about a conversation he had had with a fellow Leftie-in-fashion about the then upcoming US presidential elections. After Matthew had expressed his dismay at the likely re-election of the incumbent his partner in conversation had replied, “Yeah, but things will get a bit better. If Bush wins then at least we’ll have Kerry as Vice-President.”