How do you like to be addressed? Do you subscribe to the present trendy habit of calling everyone, young and old alike, by their given name?

Used to be called your Christian name but that is not allowed any more, or are you someone who actually likes being addressed as a married woman or a Miss Someone, rather than the awful Ms?

When the world was younger and somewhat better-mannered, no young person would have thought of addressing an adult as anything but Mr, Mrs, or Miss unless it was an honorary Auntie or Uncle for a close family friend, thus avoiding the rather stilted title.

I am sure that I shall be instantly relegated to the dinosaur zone for such observations but I am afraid I like to decide who uses my given name and under what circumstances.

My current rush of blood to the head was brought about when I saw a form which was presented to a friend of mine prior to her admission to hospital, which had a section asking her how she would like to be addressed.

Am I being stuffy when I say that I should prefer to offer the opportunity to use a name other than my surname if I feel the circumstances warrant it, ie, when I had got to know the nursing staff a little better?

The use of a first name implies a closer relationship than you would normally expect after a few days when you may be unable to make the decision as to what you want for breakfast.

The older members of our society often have little enough dignity left to them as they languish on mixed wards without losing the dignity of their marital status as well.

This mania for implying that the world is your close and loving friend appears to have migrated to the Inland Revenue, where on the latest forms you are asked for information about your partner.

Not, you notice, your husband/wife/partner, which would be acceptable to all parties, but simply and starkly your partner.

One has to ask what happened to marriage?

Surely this is political correctness gone mad? Marriage is still an honourable estate, so the prayer book tells us. No one would object to the word partner being used on the form along with husband and wife but it is really going too far to eliminate married couples altogether in order to satisfy one of the many pressure groups who appear to carry so much weight these days.

There has recently been a great outcry from the politically correct lobby over the use of words like love and dear and girls, which were used affectionately and many older folk enjoyed a little giggle as they had a gentle flirt with whomsoever addressed them thus and felt in no way demeaned.

To that generation, marriage is an honourable estate forever and to have it downgraded to satisfy some civil servant is not acceptable. We should all put a line through the word partner and write husband or wife if appropriate and if we wish to be addressed as such. I'll sit back and wait for the brickbats!