(Very) modern manners

WILL Boris Johnson’s philandering set a trend? Fashion boss Nick Ashley is convinced that extramarital affairs will soon be accepted with as much

sang- froid on this side of the Channel as they are in France.

‘The stubborn old Victorian Brits will eventually succumb to the French way,’ he tells me.

The son of late haberdashery queen Laura Ashley says: ‘ We have already started eating croissants for breakfast, drinking coffee in pavement cafes, driving convertibles, taking care of our appearance and flirting, so it is inevitable that “cinq-a- sept” will be the next big thing.’

Cinq-a-sept, for the uninitiated, refers to the hours between 5pm and 7pm that the French spend with their lovers.

What will Nick’s wife of 30 years, Ari, make of it? She’s the daughter of former Tory MP Sir Patrick McNair-Wilson.