There is something to be said for tradition, but not when institutions fail to recognise new circumstances and stubbornly refuse to change the way they have always done things.

And nothing, absolutely nothing, invites blinkered attitudes more than the British obsession with mealtimes. As the poet Rupert Brooke put it on the eve of the Great War: “Stands the church clock at ten to three, and is there honey still for tea?”

Brooke was referring to his boyhood home of Grantchester, but if he was around today he might take inspiration from Birmingham City Council’s insistence on continuing to provide a high tea at its monthly meetings.

Council meetings are nowhere near as long as they used to be, thanks to the sensible decision to limit speeches to three minutes. Is it really necessary, therefore, to provide lashings of shepherd’s pie and spotted dick with custard to councillors who have been working for about three hours?

The council has decided to do its bit for austerity Britain by reducing the two-course tea to one course, leaving a difficult choice over whether to opt for pudding only. And orange juice is to be replaced by water.

But council tax payers might conclude that even one course is a course too many in the current straightened economic circumstances.