There must be as many signs of getting old as there are stars in the sky. I exhibit a number myself: lack of hair, knees hurting, weak vision, that kind of thing; but the one that really gets me is that I'm only a few months younger than Barack Obama, putative US President, and then I'm older by some years, (this stings especially hard by the way), than the wannabe Prime Minister, David Cameron....Tories were always older, preternaturally so, now they're not. What's happened?

Policemen have been looking younger than me for years, a decade at least...but now Politicians ? This feels uncomfortable. Thank God though for Sarkozy, he's a good decade on me. I knew the French would ride to my rescue sometime. You have a friend here.