Slops, a new pandemic raging across the Western Hemisphere, has been identified by Hong Kong people.
It stands for severe loss of perspective syndrome. And many Hong Kong people believe this virus has affected Western countries so seriously a warning against non-essential travel from Britain, the US, Canada and most of Western Europe would not go amiss.
'The spread of Slops has now reached pandemic proportions, with many high-level politicians and people who should know better being affected by the disease,' an anonymous reader informs us.
An example of the virulence of Slops was described to us by socialite and entrepreneur David Tang. The cigar-wielding businessman was eating in a London restaurant recently. 'I choked on a pea and started coughing,' he told us. 'And suddenly, you couldn't hear for the scraping of chairs. People on the three tables around me got up and left the restaurant and even people sitting and having dinner with me made excuses and left.'
Several reasons for Slops' rapid spread have been put forward. Chief among them a bored media, missing the war in Iraq, and looking for a new issue with which to scare people.