It’s chic these days to complain about CCTV monitoring our every move, or sinister bureaucrats listening in to our conversations, reading our emails or sussing out our bank accounts.

But sometimes Big Brother ain’t always the E-Borders ogre he’s made out to be.

As in the case of these pensioners who put to sea in a beautiful pea green boat which had no radio.

Thanks to a lot of hard work by the Coastguard their worried mobile phone call was traced to a spot where these very tired old men were in the Irish Sea and they were rescued.

Sometimes we should think of the poor souls who have to wade through hours of our rubbish conversations about , Jade Goody’s longevity, whether our rice pudding’s getting burned or the number of rag worms left in the bait box and feel grateful someone’s bothered to listen.