I had to put up with a bigoted father from the day I was old enough to reason until the time I left home, when I was 21. The man was entitled to his own opinions, of course, as I was to mine, but it was impossible to reason or argue with him without being told to shut up. He just hated to be contradicted so, eventually, I ignored him - and have continued to do so to this very day.

He hated wops, wogs, eyeteyes, niggers, catholics, fenians, yids, etc. etc. Naturally, he never went to church unless compelled to. It always tickles me that, having done a great deal of research into the family, to find out that one set of his grandparents was from Co. Kildare, catholics and as Irish as me hat!

As for "leftie wankers", Michael, I'm with Shimrod. I would consider myself, on the whole, a liberal socialist and a humanist but not a Socialist with a capital S. I've never voted Conservative, but hated Blair as much as I hate Cameron and Milliband! To my mind, the greatest obstacle to progress in this country is the dogmatism of party politics - but what's the alternative?