Exactly. If you're more animated by having to pay your staff at a level that they can afford basics than you are about the many other challenges facing hospitality, then you're not a good employer. The trouble is that the loudest voices in hospitality are the shittiest people.

I would be interested to know whether the people assuming that this is the US or asserting their pet theories on mobile phone use, youth literacy etc without any evidence are from older generations. But I wouldn’t assert that without further research!

It’s Canada - University of Regina. My anecdotal impression from friends’ children is that today’s UK students work hard - a lot harder than I did back in the day! But then they are paying for it, so it makes sense.

It doesn’t have to ask - it’s been accepting it for decades.

I wish I had seen Kate Bush.

Yes. The Treasury knows that this will further decrease tax revenue.

Increasingly I wonder if decreased consumption is the whole point.

You obviously monitor this more closely than most, but I'm surprised we're not quite a long way past peak wine choice in supermarkets. My impression was that they have been rationalising ranges for years. Which is a real shame for discovery but probably makes choice a lot easier for most drinkers.

Yes, exactly. We're looking at the average, not the peaks!

Ouch. Hope you’re OK. Take all the painkillers.

Yes, I snorted at that one.

Just incomprehensible. That's the price of a relatively modest London flat.

When I first became a buyer, I really fell in love with Languedoc, looking for hidden gems in villages I had barely heard of. It had so much promise. It makes me so sad to think of the shattered lives, disappearing culture and dwindling communities.

So after this new 30,000 ha, that would still leave 27,000 ha surplus that needs to be dealt with. And then presumably more if consumption further declines. I guess a lot of this is happening near you. It must be a huge cultural change.

I also bought 6 bottles of Fonseca 2011 for me but I imagine I will hand them over to him too while I work my way through my 1994s!

I love the Graham's style, which I find fleshy and expressive. I bought Graham 2011 for my son (his birth year).

Mine in Brixton is really good now (although it went through a bad patch until a year or two ago, with difficulty getting appointments and referrals going missing). Same day phone calls for anything that seems it might be on the time-sensitive side.

*so

Oh good, do not just me.