With so much riding on the new payments system, it was thus a grave embarrassment to the government when the tariff for 2006-07 had to be withdrawn for amendments towards the end of February.

The ruin of the antient democracies was, that they ruled […] by occasional decrees, psephismata.

But they are physically no match for the Kabulis and every Kabuli considers himself more than a match for any number of travellers from the plains.

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, unorthodox entrepreneur and frenetic campaigner, has written a book.