So just what's fuelling the big players as the debate rages over Kosovo? For the scourge of Nato, Tony Benn, it's tea. Despite a scare some years ago when too much tea was thought to have been poisoning him, he still drinks gallons of the stuff. And then there's the new saviour of Nato - Alastair Campbell. What does he swig from morning till night? Same deal. Tea.
Tea is the drink of people who are serious about their politics, not politicians who are serious about their drink. It is even now said by some scientists to promote health - long studies have been carried out into the preventative effect of tea on lung tumours. It's also, for those who care, a rich dietary source of manganese.
When it first came to Britain in the 1650s, it was certainly a self-indulgence. A century later, there were bitter complaints that the yeomen and workers of England were being corrupted and weakened by taking tea, not beer. It has at times been smuggled in and described as a dangerous drug - the cocaine of its day. Now, though, it needs to be made glamorous again for the profit-hunters. Trendy tea-houses are springing up, offering dozens of exotic varieties, flavoured and pricey. This is downright offensive, an assault on the nation. Real tea is Indian, made with boiling water and a splash of milk. It lacks bergamot, lemon, orange, dead flowers and all similar abominations.
So how come it can be an indulgence? Simple: though we all need teabags for ordinary life, shun them occasionally. Buy fresh leaf tea. Dust down the pot. Make it the old way, with a good strainer, and time to stand. Set out your cup and saucer.
And then, if this still sounds Bennite-Campbellite puritan to you and not really that much fun - well, have a vast wedge of cake with it, too.
