With the days getting shorter, it is time we got our woollen trench coats out of the winter wardrobe. Meanwhile, a peculiar event happens for middle-class dogs: outerwear becomes crucial for even a short trot outside.

What happened to personal responsibility?

What happened to personal responsibility?

One of my biggest grievances – which persists despite contradicting most of my libertarian principles – is dogs in coats. Before the agricultural revolution, the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers living in Eurasia started to domesticate wolves – the first step, almost 30,000 years ago, towards having a dachshund to defend against delivery drivers with their ferocious bark. It is fascinating that it is the dogs who happen to inhabit the boroughs of Richmond, Battersea and Chelsea who have a particular penchant for outerwear. It is truly surprising to see that the Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ has required cosmopolitan canines to have an........

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