Martin Hesp on Saturday

The danger of acting on mere snippets

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JHE word ‘snippet’ doesn’t add up to much, does it? A few snippets of information here or there aren’t really enough to turn the world on its head. But occasionally they can end up being the snowball that starts an avalanche.

‘A couple of snippets came my way this week which made me sit up and think about the strange world we live in.

‘The first occurred at a bar quite late one evening when the attractive assistant manageress of a lovely old Devon pub told us that she'd decided to give up on men forever. My old pal, her boss, asked why. And she made the following statement, which really did take me aback...

“Did you know that 80 per cent of men lying on their deathbeds regret the fact that they've been unfaithful to their wives at least once?”

Neither my friend nor I did know this, and we asked where she'd gleaned this rather astonishing piece of information. I can’t remember the reply - perhaps it came from social media - but the important thing is that she believed it and was absolutely convinced that no woman could ever really trust any man. She'd personally experienced infidelity and she wasn’t ever going to put herself through it again.

I've just researched the subject and discovered that a YouGov poll in 2015 found that 20 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women in the UK admitted to having had an affair at some point in their lives. More recent surveys suggest that around a quarter of married men have committed adultery at least once, compared to about a fifth of married women.

That's a lot, but it ain't anywhere near 80 per cent.