I was startled, to say the least, when I read that, some years ago, the Prime Minister of Japan was attacked and almost slain by a deranged killer robot. Imagine the kerfuffle if such a thing had happened to one of our own past Prime Ministers, Harold Macmillan, say, or Neville Chamberlain. (It was Lloyd George who remarked that Chamberlain had “a wrong-shaped head”. Lord knows what he would have made of the bonce of a killer robot.)

Alas, it appears from the video kindly posted by Mr Eugenides that the PM-robot encounter was not quite as blood-curdling as we are led to believe. This just goes to show that you simply cannot trust most of what you read, either in newspapers or on the interweb. One shining exception, of course, is Hooting Yard. I am regularly discomfited when it is suggested that I make a lot of this stuff up, whereas I spend untold hours engaged in rigorous, yes, damned rigorous research to bring you the nuggets of wisdom contained herein. Only yesterday, after To Vange! was posted here,  I had to put up with mutterings about the allegedly fictional nature of Vange Well No. 5, for goodness’ sake! Get a grip, readers. You will certainly never find me babbling on about killer robots attacking veteran politicians. Cows attacking Blunkett, yes. There is a difference.