Dr Connolly acknowledged it was sometimes hard to tell the difference between harmless slagging and racist abuse.

BBC: Racist graffiti

But Al Gore wasted no time slagging the Texas Governor.

CNN: The Bush tax tango

What I'm doing is not slagging off, I'm saying I'm looking for someone who can unite our party and who can lead our party with exciting new radical ideas and I believe that the person who can do that best is Iain Duncan Smith.

BBC: News | BREAKFAST WITH FROST | The former Conservative Chairman, Michael Ancram, told Breakfast with Frost that a Kenneth Clarke leadership victory risks tearing the Party apart

The conversation moved on to those intense days of war almost 15 years back and we did what any member of the journalist tribe does when gathering after many years apart - slagging off the louder mutual acquaintances and wondering what ever happened to the quiet ones.

BBC: A classic tale of a life made good in America