An hour later, we'd indulged in the traditional St Mary's ritual for dealing with any sort of crisis, which is to imbibe vast reservoirs of tea. People laugh, but it works. By the time the kettle has boiled, the tea made, the amount of sugar added has been silently criticised, the tea blown on and finally drunk ... all this takes time, and if you're a member of St Mary's with the attention-span of a privet hedge, then you've forgotten what you were arguing about in the first place.