And that is what they're doing sir?
"It's like being in a shop and having CCTV cameras watching what you are doing," Sir John said.
"That is what we are doing, sir," came the reply – and it was considered daring enough to be news.
How proud Ralph would have been to hear him responding the other day to a man in the street who asked when he was 'going to bring back socialism' with the words: 'That's what we are doing, sir.'" Miliband responded by saying he was his own man: "My father's strongly leftwing views are well known, as is the fact that I have pursued a different path and I have a different vision.
My point is, what you're doing, sir, is weird, and even insensitive.
"We're done, sir," one said.
In 1971, when John Kerry sat before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the essence of his message was exact: many a mean thing was done, sir, from the Oval Office on down, and in the spirit of meanness.
Patrick Stewart is doing Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellen.
"You have to do what Sir Bradley Wiggins is doing and quit road cycling to be able to qualify for it," he said.
To his credit, Mr Kennedy's successor, Sir Menzies Campbell, is doing his best to wean his party from its customary frivolity.Sir "Ming", as he likes to be known, lacks zing.
It's certainly possible that Sir Ian is doing all this for free, in order to encourage men to have no shame about undergoing such treatment.
