And the knife ran away to retrain as a spoon.

Byline: VALERIE HILL

THERE'S been a stab in the back for the British cutlery trade with the pointed news that, in some shops, forks are out-selling knives by two to one It's a sharp reminder of the sign of the times that, for many modern diners, the knife is now redundant.

The fork, yes, is still gainfully employed and, as the only implement now used by many eaters, will probably soon have to go on a work-life balance course to maintain its sense of proportion and equilibrium.

The knife, though, has been placed on the labour scrapheap and will no doubt be forced to re-train and work in a call centre.

But for those of us who are knife aware, and tut-tut at every other customer in a restaurant who shovels in food single-handedly by the forkful, this is no cutting-edge revelation.

In fact, in any public feeding station, those people using a knife and fork are always in the minority - and in a certain age category.

The over-40s usually pick up both tools, and, if they don't, they should know better because they will certainly have been brought up that way.

The pre-fast food generation will automatically assume the conventional chomping position, knife and fork at the ENJOYED this column? Then read more from Valerie at www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/valerie-hill ready, in eager anticipation of all those 60s meals which formed their eating habits - liver and onions, braised steak, sausage and cheese and the like.

But those younger masticators, brought up on a diet of hamburgers, hot dogs and pizzas, have never had need of one - let alone two - pieces of cutlery.

When forced, much against their will, to assume a semblance of politeness and avoid putting their food in the mouths with their fingers, they will lay the knife aside, transfer the fork to the right hand, and scoop away.

Plus, if the sale of knives is dying out, what does the future hold for that stalwart of any wedding list, the canteen of cutlery? I have fond memories as a child of retrieving the wooden box from the side-board and polishing the silverware.

Yet this was no Upstairs Downstairs moment - it was what passed for entertainment in Haydock in 1965.

And, from that time, I also learnt a very important lesson in life: never put a bone handle in a washing-up bowl.

THE fashion industry is being hammered by the recession and even its notoriously big splurgers are tightening their crocodile skin belts.

A new documentary film, September Issue, goes behind the scenes of US Vogue with its formidable British editor Anna Wintour. She says: "People are frightened of fashion, so they put it down. There is something about fashion that makes people nervous."

Could that anxiety be linked to the power of Miss "Nuclear" Wintour?

CAPTION(S):

Is there about to be a revolution when it comes to how we use cutlery?