[Mikey]

One star for Phedre, Mr Coveney? His review may not be enthusiastic but surely a one star rating should be reserved for the real stinkers with no redeeming features. Most of us will not have seen Diana Rigg or Glenda Jackson, so it does no-one service to make pointless comparisons. His review, omitting perhaps the false-memory syndrome, should be a three-star one.

I should of course have said 'his reviewS' - while we are bothering to read Michael Coveney at all, perhaps we should wonder why we are bothering to read him twice - here and warmed up again over at the Indie. I suppose next we shall see his name twice on the WOS round-up of reviews, distorting the average ratings, and giving us all a queasy feeling of deja vu. Having endured all the scandal of MPs' claims for second homes, we should now put Mr Coveney's name on a two-home list - two reviews, two outlets, with but one thought in his head.