as I said the psychological impact of the choice of dates now referred to as 911 - in America.

The corresponding numbers in the UK would be 999.

What has been overlooked here is that '911' simply refers to the month and the day. There is no mention of the year (which was 2001).

So the corresponding UK number would be '99' not '999'. Note that in UK dates the first '9' would be the day, and the second '9' the month, not the other way around as it would be in the USA. Fortunately, if anyone gets them the wrong way around it won't matter.

So, '99' is the number to look out for, not '999'. I for one will be steering well clear of all ice cream vans on that day, as a precaution.