Ebola on the dinner table?

RESEARCHERS in the US city of Boston claim a pint of beer a day may improve a man's fertility. But don't overdo it. As Shakespeare warned us, long before Boston was even founded, alcohol "provokes the desire but takes away the performance."

THE old order passes. In the 1951 General Election, 96 per cent of all votes were cast either for Labour or the Conservatives. By 2010 these two parties shared just 65 per cent of the votes. The rest of the votes were cast for Lib-Dems, SNP, Ukip, Greens or other minor parties. The two-party system is breaking down and polls in Scotland this week suggest the process is accelerating with Greens and SNP aiming to win Labour-held seats. We are witnessing a sea-change in the way people think about politics, and a decline in the loyalty that both Labour and the Tories once took for granted. The emergence of a multi-party system threatens the old order and the front line in British politics today is not between Left and Right but between two big parties, with very similar policies, and a host of smaller parties. It raises an interesting prospect. How long before we see the first Tory-Labour Coalition government? Might be worth a fiver at the bookie's.

MEANWHILE, just pray that the campaign by some MPs to scrap Britain's fixed-term parliaments will go away. The statutory five-year term, doing away with short governments, pre-poll sweeteners and opportunistic elections, is the brightest thing the Coalition has done.

IF you didn't catch the excellent Simon Callow as the election candidate with the dodgy toupee in Plebs (ITV2) this week, you missed a comic masterpiece. When a new comedy series attracts great actors like Callow so quickly, you know it's something special. Perfect.

WHAT'S up, Doc? Christmas come early? The plan, announced yesterday, to pay GPs £55 for every case of dementia they diagnose is wide open to abuse. When some senior GPs warn that it may lead to patients being wrongly diagnosed, what they are actually saying is that they don't trust some of their colleagues. So can we at least insist on one tiny check? If some doctors are found to be diagnosing far more dementia than other practices, let's send in the taxman to have a good close look at their financial affairs. We'd be mad not to.

A REPORT on the BBC website tells us something about the connection between so-called bush meat and the Ebola virus. Experts believe there is a risk of the contagion being passed in the meat of bats, gorillas, chimpanzees and other African delicacies. So how does this affect us? To see the other half of the story, you have to dig out a BBC undercover report from 2012 which found "shocking" quantities of illegal and "potentially unsafe" meat being sold to the public in London. Or you could talk to experts like the wildlife charity Born Free which estimates that 7,500 tons of bush-meat products enters Britain every year, most of it in the suitcases of travellers from Africa. More than half of the illegal meat is distributed through wholesalers or sold at local street markets. So as you are reading this there's a good chance that someone, somewhere in Britain is sitting down to a meal of African ape or fruit bat - containing God knows what.

I WROTE yesterday about the popular British travel writer, Hitler-admirer and all-round cad, H V Morton. Why did he choose to be known by his initials? His full name was Henry Canova Vollam Morton. Wouldn't you?