MY grandma had a wonderful way with words, most of them northern in origin. Hardly surprising, really, as she was as Lancashire as spud pie.

She would listen to someone prattling on about a topic they considered important, give them a long look and then say: "Int it grand when yer daft."

I never fully understood what she meant. Was she passing comment on the speaker's opinions, or affirming that to be daft meant that very little ever entered the vacuous heads of the hoi polloi?

Sadly my gran passed away when I was a callow youth and I never fully capitalised on her wisdom. So I can only guess that what she meant by "Int it grand when yer daft" was to infer that people with limited intelligence were better equipped to face life's problems than thinkers who worried about everything.

I went down that route when the news services carried the story that a Lib Dem MP called Lembit Opik had announced that an asteroid, two kilometres wide, was on collision course with Earth and due to impact on February 1, 2019. Because I am a "thinker", I immediately visualised Planet Earth under serious threat, facing mass destruction with the deaths of countless millions.

I'm not anticipating living to 85 so can't expect to be around when it happens, but my children and grandchildren will and what sort of a future faces them? Seventeen years of waiting for Godot -- or total madness as everyone abandons accepted codes of behaviour?

Similar thoughts must have crossed the minds of the movers and shakers. Within hours of the Opik proclamation of gloom, "experts" were being wheeled out to scoff at Lembit's forecast, saying it was a load of old cobblers and that rogue asteroid 2002 NT7 would miss us by at least a million miles.

To coin the famous phrase used by Mandy Rice-Davies during the Profumo scandal of the 1960s: "Well they would say that, wouldn't they". Yes, "they" most certainly would. The one thing "they" can't have is zillions of law-abiding, subservient folk running amok, looting, fighting, ignoring sexual restraints and not paying council taxes on the grounds that 17 years down the line awaits Armageddon, so they might as well make the most of what time they have left.

Our beloved leaders needn't worry unduly if the straw poll I conducted was any barometer of public opinion. Youthful tabloid readers in the office sniggered and carried on devouring the latest revelations from the Big Brother House. More mature members of staff tended to take comfort from the statements of the experts rubbishing the Lembit Opik (that's some name) prophecy.

Will the public take the doom-laden announcement with the usual pinch of salt and dismiss it as yet another example of some publicity-seeking Johnny enjoying their 15 minutes of fame?

My educated guess is: Yes, they will. And anyway, asteroid collison circa 2019 is hardly likely to be considered a valid reason for non-payment of taxes or abandonment of sexual restraints, although I'm willing to give it a go.

"Int it grand when yer daft", as my gran would have said. Anyone disagree?