I was forcefully reminded of one more awful modern trend when the news broke that the Big Belly Gang had been rumbled.
This heartless gang of ruthless shop lifters terrorised the shopping malls in Hangzhou, China, for more than ten years but the police, after months spent in staking-out and shaking-down, finally busted the 47-strong crime ring.
What on earth were these women doing?
Stuffing loaves of bread in their coats? Socks shoved in the maternity smock?
Which brings me to that awful modern trend, the thought of which inflamed me this morning, the tasteless flaunting of pregnant bellies.
In my day no one even knew we were pregnant, not even our husbands who were notoriously slow on the uptake. Some us weren’t too fast either.
We wore large and shapeless garments to conceal our swelling stomachs. These formless shawls and dark-hued miniature tents swathed our secret and no one would be as vulgar as to ask if we were in an interesting condition.
Just like Olivia de Havilland in Gone With The Wind.
This parade of pregnancy is another symptom of the Modern Malaise.