On a related note, there was a coffee-all-over-the-monitor cartoon in private eye last week. Husband and wife in bedroom, wife's in a burka - "well, you said you wanted me to dress up as a schoolgirl!"

I got into a lot of trouble in 6th year at school for growing a beard. Looking back now, I obviously realise how ridiculous I looked, but the school decided to demote me from being a prefect and stop me playing in the school hockey team (I had been captain the previous year) until I shaved it off. And people wonder why I left school half way through 6th year.

There was nothing in the school rules stating that male pupils had to shave. I still never took it to the High Court though!

Ah, one of them unwritten school rules. They were a pain. There was one guy in my sixth form who got into no end of trouble for having the same haircut as most of the rest of us. We could never work out what the problem was. Admittedly, we were all white and he was slightly half-caste, so the frizziness of his hair made the haircut seem slightly different, but still. I don't think the teachers were racist, but I do think they were so bloody stupid that they couldn't see that they were acting as if they were racists.