Friends, I got it wrong. Two short weeks ago, I wrote a typically smug polemic about how my 16-year-old son should be allowed to have a few drinks now and again because he is incredibly mature and responsible and would never drink to excess. The general thrust of the piece was that my child is different from yours, you see, because his mother is one 16th French and they are a very sophisticated people who have a glass of wine with their Liga from the age of two upwards.

.