Tasty debates

My place of work is increasingly odd...

Tony Blair's imminent departure? Not a mutter.
The crisis in the Middle East? Hardly an eyebrow raised.
Terror threat across the country? Mmmm, whatever.

No, the real debate in open-plan hell, the chat which has raised voices and temperatures and people have almost come to blows over is...

"What were the best sweeties when we were kids?"

I kid you not, people have been having serious fall-outs over this. For the past few days, every sentence has begun with: "Oh, oh, does anyone remember..." usually followed by such teeth rotters of yesteryear like "Jubilees, flying saucers, Wham bars, splicers, Caramacs, that edible rice paper type stuff."

As hard as I have tried to remain aloof from this juvenile - and frankly inane - banter, I did have to interject when one poor misguided fool actually tried to defend the rather poor 'shoelaces' against the infinitely superior, and timeless, 'ten pence mixture.' I mean, really.

But seriously, this is precisely what is wrong with the world. I haven't seen my work colleagues so animated about anything since, well... ever.
Forget the worsening AIDS crisis in Africa, human rights abuses in Indonesia, or even rising petrol prices at home, it's sugar-coated nostalgia that's gripping the nation.

Maybe when Gordon Brown becomes PM he could learn something from this lot. "My right honorable ladies and gentlemen of house... do any of you remember aniseed balls!"