29 OCTOBER 1988, Page 7

`...and statistics'

BRITAIN'S teenagers are a real boring bunch.' [Over] . . . 13,000 [youngsters participated] • • . in [a] . . . Barclays Bank survey last Easter . . . Boys scored . . most for being boring when asked to describe their 'ideal evening'.

The most popular choice (29 per cent) was a 'quiet night by the telly with my partner' rather than an elegant dinner party, a visit to a disco or wine bar, or an outing to the cinema or theatre. (Evening Standard, 1 Septem- ber)

One could put it another way and say that 71 per cent of boys would rather go out than stay in (assuming that the three other broad choices mentioned exhaust the list of activities on offer), which leads to exactly the opposite conclusion. In any case, would the 'partners' find it `boring' to spend a night with a boy by the 'telly'? The 'partners' are the only people whose opinion of whether the boy is boring or not counts for anything.

£20 goes to Mr J. M. Gudgeon, of Lewisham. Send examples to . . . and statistics'; £20 for the best published; £10 for every other published.