Up and down the length of Britain, as local newspapers go to the wall, magazines fold, and local TV stations cut staff, hundreds of thousands of young people are doing media studies at college.

My message to them is ‘Do not despair’ for there is always Public Relations. OK so you won’t get to change the world, win a Pulitzer Prize, or interview the Pope.

But if the number of emails which gets sent to me on a daily basis by ‘media consultants’ is anything to go by you will have a job. They come pouring in from MCs trying to sell anything from customised fountain pens to off-road four-wheel drive SUVs.  

Clearly none of them ever read Yachting Monthly or if they do are thinking laterally, or maybe even longitudinally. The latest is from a nice young lady – and they are always ladies – called Emma O’Brien who informs me that I can become friendly with waterproof socks.

This is because she has set up a Facebook page for these liquid-repelling footwear.

So fear not, as the country grinds to a halt for the lack of engineers, tool-makers, care workers, nurses, teachers, electricians, dentists, chefs, farm workers, and plumbers, there will always be a company boss so obsessed with celebrity that he will employ a PR to up his corporate profile. Whether he actually turns in a bigger profit as a result is neither here nor there.