So Neil Kinnock buys his underpants and socks from M&S. It takes a brave man to make such a revelation in the national press.

Not that shopping at M&S is anything to be embarrassed about and it's comforting to know that he wears good old-fashioned underpants (boys start off in underpants, have a boxer short phase in their 20s and 30s, then it's back to good old Y-fronts). But as for buying them himself - I don't believe a word of it.

Unless the former Labour leader is markedly different to every other male on the planet, it will be his wife Glenys who pops to the shops for his smalls.

What is it with men and their underpants, which renders them unable to buy them? I blame it on their mums. They are more than willing to trail to the shops while the apple of their eye lounges around in front of the television.

Buying other items of clothing might occasionally require the presence of their sons - especially if they've had to take an item back to change it half a dozen times. But you can't go wrong with underwear - small, medium or large.

My husband admits to never having bought a pair of underpants in his life. First his mum did the dirty work, now me. My dad is the same - put him in a bookshop and he'll browse for hours, flitting effortlessly from section to section, before emerging with a bulging carrier bag. He's even been known to visit the odd clothes shop to buy shirts. But stick him in the underwear department of a high street store and he wouldn't know what to do, where to look or how to behave.

It would be like the hilarious scene in Father Ted, when a number of priests were led to safety after becoming lost in the lingerie section at their local department store.

It's bizarre, but men are more willing to buy underwear for women. In the run-up to Christmas, the bulk of lingerie sales are to men, and they're not too bashful to pick the most raunchy-looking garments (which women subsequently take back). So why won't they buy their own? Is it because they don't want other shoppers to witness their choice of underwear? Or because they haven't a clue what size to buy?

It's not because they don't care what they wear under their trousers - they do. They might pretend to have a laissez faire attitude , but they know exactly what they want. "What size?" I will ask my husband, before going to the shops. "Oh, anything," he replies.

"Small, then," I tell him. "No way - large or extra large," he says, appalled that I could even think he could fit his private parts into the minimum size.

And he was less than thrilled when I bought him Bart Simpson boxer shorts - a virtual giveaway in the January sales.

When looking for a wife, men have one thought and one thought alone - not "Is she attractive?", or "Can she cook?" but "Will she buy my underpants?"

What I'd like to know is what would men do without us. I suppose there's always catalogue shopping.

Staff at a London laundry were said to be amazed when members of the Spice Girls handed over their underwear for dry cleaning. With their hectic schedule, I'm not surprised.

Better than wringing their frillies out in hotel bathrooms every night and hanging them out of the tour bus windows to dry.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.