Otherwise several devices of a Heath Robinson nature are suggested boards to deflect the trajectory of urine and droppings, flashing lights, ultra-sound, unpleasant smells, stuffed owls, rustling aluminium foil and helium-filled balloons.

ECONOMIST: Bat raves

An incongruous hybrid of democracy and dictatorship, it resembled the cartoons of Heath Robinson, who drew preposterous assemblages of levers, cranks and pulleys, kept running by the tinkering of small bald men in spectacles.

ECONOMIST: Pakistan's politics

And opposite a particularly Heath Robinson piece of machinery, complete with foot-long levers and dials like the engine room of the Titanic, I spot an old circuit diagram on the wall, mapping out each of Britain's national newspapers.

ECONOMIST: Snooker, piranhas and a hotline to Moscow