Ange and Mandy and the things we never say in polite company

The correct etiquette at polite dinner parties still requires steering the conversation so as to avoid any descent into rabid disagreements over politics or religion, even though these subjects can define the very core of our perceived existence.

- with Joe Riley

Yet very few individuals are apolitical or agnostic. Ultimately, we still live in a stand up and be counted sort of world.

That said, social graces and conventions usually prefer to avoid confrontational issues.

So that at a joyful wedding I attended this weekend, nobody mentioned the resignation of Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister and deputy leader of the Labour Party.

Likewise, Keir Starmer's even more recent dismissal of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to the United States, days prior to a state visit by Donald Trump.

But nor, given the church environment, did they talk about the 15-year-old London-born Italian boy, Carlo Acutis, who only seven days earlier had been declared the first millennial saint by Pope Leo.