THE Diary likes to pass on fascinating pieces of information with which readers can regale their friends and relatives for years to come, allowing them to increase their social standing no end. So here are a few facts about chips.

If all the chips eaten in Great Britain each year were laid end to end they would stretch around the world 76 times.

It would take an area the size of 56,000 Wembley stadium football pitches to grow all the potatoes needed for the chips eaten in Britain each year.

Each 1kg bag of oven chips is made from an average of 16 medium sized spuds.

One out of every four potatoes grown in Britain are made into chips - that's approximately 1.25 million tonnes every year.

Fish and chip shops need ten per cent of the country's potato crop to keep them going.

Eight out of ten households in Britain buy frozen chips each year and most homes have a bag in the freezer.

These fascinating facts have been sent to The Diary in preparation for - you guessed it - National Chip Week, which runs from February 11 to 17.

The British Potato Council (BPC) wants Britons to vote for the outlet that sells the best chips, be it a pub, chippie, restaurant or burger van.

The BPC has even recruited Keith Chegwin, who is described as "a celebrity chip connoisseur". He will be touring the country with "Britain's top chip-ologist", the BPC's chip inspector, to taste the chips that people vote for.

Anyone who would like to take part in the chip vote should visit www.lovechips.co.uk


* MORE evidence emerges that Britain is going to the dogs and people these days have the morals of sewer rats.

According to research from drinks manufacturer WKD, British men lie to their wives and girlfriends nearly twice a day. Apparently, guys tell 730 porkies a year to their lovers.

Interestingly, the kinds of things men are most likely to lie about to their partners tend to be false excuses that allow them to escape the missus'.

"I'm not feeling very well" was the top lie throughout the UK, with nearly 20 per cent of men admitting to using this line to avoid their woman for a night. This was closely followed by northern men's favourite - "I had no signal" - and the third most likely excuse - "I'm stuck in traffic".

It would seem that some British guys have a little more imagination though, with more inventive excuses including; "I've got company training" and "I'm helping a friend move house".

However, it's most likely that they'll be down the pub. This answer came out as the top choice for escaping the girlfriend, closely followed by going to watch a football match.

Even getting a good night's kip was worthy of a little white lie, with 13 per cent of male respondents claiming they've made something up so they could have an early night.

So if you're a woman reading this and you've just heard your boyfriend or husband use any of the above excuses, be on your guard.

But if Mrs Diary is reading this, then I really was stuck in traffic when I should have been at your mother's, and I honestly couldn't get a signal when you called me that Friday night, and that day when I couldn't go shopping, well I really was helping Dave move house