Here’s an amazing fact, courtesy of our old friends OnePoll, creators of surveys for the PR industry.

Couples in Devon are more than twice as likely to be unfaithful to their partners as are those in any other English county, a survey commissioned by the dating agency Illicit Encounters has shown.

Almost half the respondents from Devon (47.0 per cent) had either cheated on their partner in the past, or were doing so now. Brief Encounter it certainly isn’t. In the next-naughtiest county, Avon, only 19 per cent make this claim.  

There’s no point in reporting the rest of the results: they will doubtless appear in some of tomorrow’s less scrupulous newspapers. The Daily Telegraph online has already reported them.

But even a nodding acquaintance with survey methodology would tell you that you can’t make a county-by-county comparison on the basis of modest numbers of respondents - even if everybody was telling the truth, which they don’t appear to be in Devon.

The full lowdown on these surveys is here.