It's a little-known fact that Dr Vincent Cable - the Lib Dems' grimly northern, silent-movie-villain Shadow Chancellor - is actually rather buff when stripped to shorts and t-shirt.

Now, before everyone hits the speed dial to the News of the World, I should say the reason I know this is that I once found myself queueing next to him for a machine at my gym and was able to observe that he's broadly the same shape as the fitness instructors (40 years his junior) but rather taller.

It's a good gym - quite aside from anything it might have done for Vince it's responsible for me dropping several cup sizes and developing muscles I've only ever seen in photos of wrestlers. But, admirable though it is in many ways, there is one aspect of it that makes me cringe - namely the signs and notices.

These are clearly written by someone possessing only a passing acquaintance with the rules of grammar but blessed with a compensatory creative approach towards punctuation.