One of the more dispiriting aspects of London Street Life is the proliferation of Street Perfromers, dressed as some easily understandable figure from the World of Entertainment, mutely available for tourists' cameras, usually embracing a fearful child.

My ideal of Street Performer was a Fat Stockbroker who danced to a reel to reel in Norwich's main shopping boulevard. I have seen unemployed Art Students dressed as the Flower Pot men chewing drainpipes for the amusement of passersby. A man in a checked shirt (above) attempted a version of Colonel Bogie on a Traffic Cone.

A new low was reached with a barely adequate chicken playing for sympathy in front of the National Gallery, London in April 2016. For one brief moment I thought he was being ignored. And then a Japanese child was led into its embrace. On an immediate and urgent research trip I discovered that the suit didn't meet behind.

This visit confirmed a wealth of Yodas for public scrutiny and metallic robot figures, regularly generating amusement among foreign visitors. Should Britain leave the European Community, we may all be forced to earning our living in this unseemly way.