The open thread at the Daily Ablution today has an intriguing new game:

Dinner Party Conversational Gambits (or 8 Things You Should Say To Liberal-Leftists)

1. If there was one dominant culture in Britain, life would be easier because we would all know where we were.
2. The poorer health outcomes of the lower socio-economic groups are largely a result of their own choices.
3. The present high levels of taxation and regulation in the UK diminish self-reliance and discourage job-creation, and the massive increases in public expenditure have bought few improvements in services.
4. Countries with substantial private sector contributions to healthcare have superior health provision to the UK with its state monopoly.
5. Prison works and represents excellent value for money.
6. If it is occurring, there is not much that we can do about global warming.
7. Even feminist fashionistas dress to please men, though they refuse to acknowledge it.
8. Islamic migration into the UK should be severely curtailed until there is clear evidence that the Muslims already here are integrating into British society.

As it happens, I have a tried and tested gambit which has guaranteed results. A little while ago, a friend and I had terrific fun at a dinner party winding up an archetypal Californian lefty-liberal with the assertion that the Golden Arches is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. Specifically, that one can enter a McDonalds anywhere on the planet and get exactly the same product, guaranteed the same quality and taste, whether it be on the battlefields of Iraq, or in Moscow, Hampstead or Delhi.

Such an assertion, whilst deliberately designed to wind up said liberal-leftsts, has the added advantage of being entirely and demonstrably true.

UPDATE: Someone has emailed pointing out a howler above. You can't buy one in Delhi. Oops. You know what I mean, though. Let's say Melbourne instead. Or anywhere else McDonalds operates.

As it happens, I've probably only ever eaten a dozen McDonalds in my life. I don't like fast food at all. It's The French Laundry, The Fat Duck, El Bulli or nowhere for me. The point is though that it's a stunning feat of humanity to make them available for those people who do, across the globe.