Simon Hoggart made an attack on single people

Above: Simon Hoggart is a senior journalist with The Guardian (and used to write for Punch from the evidence of this paperback which has been lying around the house for at least twenty years). His words, despite their surface humour, carry weight. Unlike for instance Euan Ferguson where you just say "Self-indulgent garbage" and turn the page.

In The Guardian yesterday Simon Hoggart made an attack on single people. As if they do not already suffer enough discrimination (single "supplements" on hotel rooms, paying tax to educate other people's kids, last in the queue for any state handouts etc). Based on a reading of the Ziegler biography of Ted Heath, Simon Hoggart told the Guardian's readers that single people brood on things too much, have no sense of perspective, and because they live alone are likely to make poor decisions.

A look at the last two premiers demonstates how faulty the Hoggart theory is:

Gordon Brown was "living with someone" but was notorious for his brooding, his sulking, his bullying, his pushing-secretaries-off-chairs, his stabbing of car seats, his gratuitous insults of elderly grannies who disagree with him etc.

Tony Blair was "living with someone" (Lady Macbeth no less) and yet managed to be one of the most evil and dishonest holders of the office of Prime Minister.

Neither of these two can be called well-balenced individuals with a good sense of perspective and able to make good decisions.

So Simon Hoggart's theory is in tatters.