Unfortunately the magazine is subtitled for girls which Darcy rejects as sexist rubbish

Unfortunately, the magazine is subtitled “for girls”, which Darcy rejects as sexist rubbish. Nonetheless, he sends me into the newsagent to buy his copy while he skulks outside, and we fold it carefully to hide the title as we walk home, which makes me feel like a teenager buying porn from the top shelf.I’ve found myself looking forward to the pleasures of dog ownership – the knowledge that there will always be someone to welcome me at the door when I arrive home from work, unlike the children who barely glance up from their homework to grunt, and the excuse to run several miles a day in the park to keep city-dog fit.I have also resolved that no one will be able to call me a hypocrite, so I’ll set off for every walk with a couple of plastic bags in my pocket (although I try not to dwell on the mechanics of this). It may be expecting too much to hope that other dog-owners will be inspired by my poop-scooping example, but the shift in attitudes has got to start somewhere.. I am nervous about meeting the Walkleys.

This is the family that has been banned from all Sainsbury’s supermarkets because they refuse to shop in the “normal” way. “They are abusive, aggressive and disruptive,” says a Sainsbury’s press officer. This makes me wonder whether they are the family from hell, or at least the family that the home secretary Jack Straw is most likely to arrest the next time he gets one of his civic urges. But it is what the press release doesn’t mention that catches my eye. Over the past 15 months the Walkleys have become obsessive price-checkers. It all started humbly enough with a bottle of wrongly priced Dolmio sauce at their local in Hemel Hempstead. Sainsbury’s policy is that if there is a discrepancy between the price on the shelf label and that charged at the check-out, you get your money back and the product for free.

The Walkleys started to find lots of errors and, as frustrations mounted, perfected the guerrilla tactic of bulk-buying these items. Since last January, they claim to have had pounds 12,000-worth of free stuff, including gallons of Rolling Rock beer and lifetime supplies of such staples as pinto beans, Nivea moisturiser, custard and Lucozade.
I’m not sure what to expect, other than a bottle of Rolling Rock, as I head off to meet what has been called the “Gang of Four” in deepest Hemel Hempstead. It seems wise to be wary because so far all the opinions I’ve received have been negative – though it must be said that these were based on nothing more specific than a thorough knowledge of the English psyche “They are not champions of the consumer,” said one friend “They are in it for the freebies And who wouldn’t be?” He had a point. At times England does seem to be a country in search of a free upgrade. But there was a chance that everyone out there was wrong, and the Walkleys really did just want the price to be right.