Londoner Mark Burgess wrote this in a letter to The Times the other day: "Lord Hattersley (a former deputy leader of the Labour Party) is wrong to say that we celebrate 'an obscure Roman soldier' on St George's Day. We celebrate a man who preferred death to betraying his principles.

"I realise that this may be difficult for a politician to understand."

But Burgess is spot on. You don't have to be a grand personage to have high principles: you can be just a simple squaddie.

Our pompous politicians these days, many of whom are obsessed with wealth and high living, don't seem able to get their heads around that.

As the Bard noted, there's nothing becomes a man so much as modest stillness and humility.