I remember something dear Saddam once said to me, and pass it on to Clare Shorts, consort of renegade red-beard pacifister Robin Cook.

"We're all only 45 minutes from oblivion!" Mr Hussein told me, when we shared a corporate hostility tent at Wimbledon '03.

When I checked with his entourage afterwards, I was assured that Saddam meant that three quarters of an hour is the longest anyone should go without hydrating ie having a glass of water.

Actually, according to The Communist Manifesto, everyone should drink at least eight glasses of water a day. But you try telling that to the bosses.