Why not make today World Hug Day?

It must be a fairly remote existence for those at the top. Maybe our beleaguered ministers need to take some take out for a bonding hug from time to time – and not with any floozy!

They could get some practise this weekend at the Global World Hug Day which takes place in Nottingham on Sunday, planned to be “a group embrace of epic proportions”, at which the mind boggles.

Chinese brothers Xianxian, 50, and Qiang, 44, were demonstrating it on the London South Bank this morning. The idea is to hug a stranger as a social art form which they will record and photograph.

While British people may feel uncomfortable about this, it seems the Chinese find hugging even harder; it is not part of their culture to be demonstratively affectionate, unlike our continental neighbours.

They share our English reserve and stiff upper lip and like to shake hands instead.

Nevetheless, the brothers are travelling around Europe rallying huggers together and the Nottingham event is billed as the most ambitious to date. You can later watch yourself in action on their video.

It is the first ever mass hugging to be staged in the UK and will last 15 minutes, accompanied by the music of J.S.Bach to put you in the mood.

The first ever Utopia of Hugging was held in China in September 2000. It went like this:

“We invited some 150 volunteers who were previously strangers to each other to particiapte. We aked the participants to choose a person at random for a hug, which they would then do simultaneiously with hundreds of other couples.

“We then asked everyone present to cluster into one big group hug. Since then, we personally have hugged hundreds of strangers and organised group hugs amongs strangers in different public localtioss and in different ways all across China.”

World Hug Day continues in Marseille on 9th June – I’m sure the French will need no persuading.

But if you do struggle with the etiquette of hugging, which side of the cheek to turn to and how to avoid creasing your shirt, you could pick up some valuable tips from The Art of Hugging: The world famous kissing coach offers inspiration and advice on why, where and how to hug.