Rates of marriage are falling year on year for good reason. The average cost of a wedding is 25,000 a phenomenal increase on the 1950s figure of just 600 in today's terms. It is a risky investment for most of us; an unimaginable one for those lower down the social scale, where rates of cohabitation are highest.

I'm not sure what to make of Chris Grayling's attack on members of "the Polly Toynbee Left". No doubt the employment minister is right to say that their opinions display massive ignorance of the modern labour market (though they do tend to know the going rate for domestic help). But would we really want to be without the great lady herself?

6. You experience a rapid deterioration in your short-term memory and I'm already suffering from that, thank you very much.

After setting the bar at such low prices, Chinese manufacturers say they will run plants below capacity to reduce spending and shed inventory.

And he did that successfully, if not especially elegantly. But that was the whole point; the medium was the message. Yesterday we were presented with Obama the president, not Obama the visionary. He was older, wiser, more aware of the realities, and limits, of the office he holds. "The first time I addressed this convention in 2004, I was a younger man," he said, "who spoke about hope - not blind optimism or wishful thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty; hope in the face of uncertainty." But today, "that hope has been tested - by the cost of war; by one of the worst economic crises in history; and by political gridlock that's left us wondering whether it's still possible to tackle the challenges of our time."