It used to be the cheaper wines that had screw-top bottles and wine snobs would make assumptions about the content of the bottle were they to be offered one. Now, presumably, the efficacy of the screw top has improved and they are no longer considered inferior. It appears that the days of corked wine (in the bad sense of that word) are soon to be over. It is estimated that up to ten per cent of bottles with traditional corks have wine within them adversely affected by oxidisation caused by the cork.

This set me to thinking about other complete reversals of attitudes to the way we do things.

I remember very clearly how we all greeted wind farms with enthusiasm initially but now the ‘anti’ lobby is growing, based on aesthetics and bird deaths, mainly. Personally, I rather like these great modern giants striding across hilltops and the domestic cat kills a lot more birds than any wind farm ever will.

In my lifetime, what we know about smoking has moved us from being a society that considered it a rather cool, modern and stylish activity to being unacceptable worldwide.

Coffee, eggs, milk and butter have all seesawed over the last few decades on the good for you/bad for you scale. Currently they are all having something of a second chance, although the seesaw is moving up and down more quickly than it used to.

No sooner do we start enjoying any of them again then another vested interest will fund research that says they’re killing us.

Maybe moderation really is the answer. The latest trend is to say that all those vitamin supplements we take may be doing more harm than good. The case being that they exist to replace deficiencies, not to add to an otherwise sensible diet which should contain enough for most of us.

Even the suggestion that we should drink eight cups of water a day is now being called into question. One study has suggested that over-hydration is more dangerous than dehydration. They now say that your body will tell you what you want – so trust it.

Those hand driers that we believe are more hygienic than disposable towels are in fact just the opposite, as they are usually drawing in bacteria laden air from the toilet area they are situated in and blowing it all over our hands.

You can’t win, can you?