Captain Moonlight: Bikes, bags, the Beeb - and who's sari now?

WHO would be a politician? Nobody thanks you, but they're only too ready to criticise, oh yes, and all you're trying to do is the right thing. Perks aren't what they were, either, in this 'new climate'. Anyway, take Margaret Beckett, Labour's deputy leader. She was invited to a dinner at the Dorchester last week for Narasimha Rao, the Indian Prime Minister, and pitched up wearing a sari, in delicate pale beige and cream.

Well. There was little talk of anything else at dinner. A graceful tribute, or overstepping the mark? Debate raged. The Indian reaction was the usual slight perplexity when dealing with the British: they weren't offended, but, then again, they couldn't really see, well, why.