I have suspected that Facebook may, after all, have redeeming features, and Sebastian Shakespeare in the “New Statesman” has recently discovered it:

I was once invited to join a group called Caned, which was set up on the anniversary of the abolition of corporal punishment in schools. “Were you one of the last to get a wallop? Did you deliver a walloping?” I had no intention of wearing my stripes in public. But scrolling through the comments on the group’s wall I came across Times trencherman Giles Coren’s theories on corporal punishment. “To be honest I doubt anyone who was caned would be on Facebook,” he remarked. “People that old aren’t, are they?” Well, Giles, I have news for you. I was caned and I am on Facebook.

I would like to suggest a poll: who else thinks that the person starting the group in the first place is kinky, and was looking for real-life caning accounts?