What is it with phone numbers in this country? For about a decade the Dublin area exchanges have all used the standard international format of seven-digit numbers, yet every corporate business card seems determined to present this simple sequence in a variety of ways.

The Margin has seen the seven presented as a sequence of two, two and three digits; three, two and two; two, three, two; one, three and three; and four and three.

Why, oh why, do we not standardise on the sequence the rest of the world uses because it is the easiest to remember: three and four?