Live it up

Heartening news continues to trickle in despite everything.

Heartening news continues to trickle in despite everything. The British Davis Cup victory in Ecuador and the Liberal Democrat campaign to keep small cinemas open has been accompanied by a series of reports from the medical profession, clearly anxious to keep morale up. And not just morale. The encouraging information that sex three times a week can halve the risk of heart disease is now joined by the discovery that Viagra, in addition to its uplifting properties, can also boost the oxygen-absorbing capacity of the lungs. While this is clearly a welcome development for men of a certain age living in Snowdonia, the Highlands and the Lake District, the effects on fit young mountaineers are not yet entirely clear, although we can envisage problems abseiling. More research, please!