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quite quickly. Others are left wondering whether to wait silently until the call is over and they can resume the conversation they were having, or to carry on regardless and politely ignore the telephone call. Though of course they are thinking "How rude!" as is everyone in the entire restaurant.

The polite thing to do if your cell phone goes off at the meal table, restaurant or not, is to hastily turn it off and smile sweetly at your companions. After all, missed calls are logged so you can call back. Next best is to offer an apology and discreetly leave the table to take the call but it is amazing how many people do not do that.

Back in the good old days [again] , if a phone call was neccessary, which it usually wasn't unless you were REALLY important, a waiter would whisper in your ear and lead you the telephone. If you were really REALLY important, he would bring you the device on a silver platter, elegantly. There was one telephone which rang somewhere else and only in exceptional circumstances.

Unless it is a business lunch, most people dine out to relax and forget about the pressures of work and parenthood. They choose their companions carefully and wish to make them feel special. Nothing can make a guest feel less special than being discarded, mid sentence, in favour of a text message or phone call. No-one wants to be reminded of office politics or stock market plunges whilst dealing with a lobster or artichoke and very few people care to listen to half the gory detals of an imminent divorce over a moist slab of chocolate fudge cake.

Telephone contact in a restaurant is a good thing especially for parents and their abandoned offspring. It might be neccessary for an executive at a business meal waiting to clinch a deal. There is no reason, though, why a person cannot leave the table and go into the lobby to make or take such calls or use the restaurant telephone in a real emergency.

Cell phones are a great communication bonus. That does not mean every public place is suitable to have as an extension of the office. Used with discrimination, moblies make life a great deal easier and safer for users. Just as in the days of "elbows off the table" there do need to be some clear social ettiquette as to when and where it is appropriate to receive and make calls. Inflicting a ghastly ring tone followed by a private conversation on other people enjoying social intercourse and a fine meal is clearly a "no, no" for anyone with any sense of social grace. Ban them!

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