Last updated 11:18, Friday, 03 October 2008

Never, says Anne Pickles. It’s human nature after all. So slap on that lippie, flutter your eyelashes, flash some leg and go for it girls!

Joanna Lumley as Ab Fab's Patsy

Your bifocals meet across a crowded room and your pacemaker skips a big enough beat to set his mobile ringing. Gently adjusting your skirt to hide unattractive varicose veins, you ask yourself: “Am I perhaps too old to flirt?”

It might not be the most urgent quandary to hit a woman in her later years – but it’s certainly one of them. All romance is sparked by a flirt and surely we’re never too old for romance... or are we?

Not long ago Tory MP Ann Widdecombe admitted no one had flirted with her for at least 10 years.

She’s now 60 and when asked she said: “Gracious me, no! I have certainly not instigated any flirting, either. It’s not my way of doing things.”

Now, that is sad. Joyless, even. There’s nothing so spirit-lifting as a flirt, even when sight’s failing so badly you can’t see who you’re chatting up... maybe more so then.

But from what she says, Miss Widdecombe has probably been 60 since she was 20. In her interview with Saga magazine she said: “I never go on the beach unless it is for the purpose of walking fully clothed, not lying down in a bikini.

“I haven’t a clue what is in the pop charts. I have never been to a pop or rock concert in my life. I am very staid. I play safe with my outfits.”

And she had “certainly not” hitched up her skirts and kicked off her shoes to dance: “I can be quite certain of this because I don’t dance.”

Well, she’s likely to be missing out. Flirting is much more than just a spot of fun. It is a universal and essential aspect of human interaction – or so says the Social Issues Research Centre, which sounds important enough to know.

Anthropological research shows flirting is to be found, in some form, in all cultures and societies.

It is a basic instinct. And it may even be the foundation of civilisation.

The SIRC, in an investigation into flirting commissioned by Martini, argues the large human brain – our superior intelligence, everything that distinguishes us from animals – is the equivalent of the peacock's tail: a courtship device evolved to attract and retain partners.

Its report insists our achievements in everything from art to rocket science may be merely a side-effect of the essential ability to charm.

By that token, if Mona Lisa hadn’t flashed her eyes at Leonardo, we’d have missed one of humanity’s greatest creative works – and let’s face it, she was no spring chicken.

Had George Bush not been trying to bowl over his Laura, he’d never have made the White House and if Bill Clinton hadn’t had the hots for Monica Lewinsky, cigars would have been banned from US public spaces long before they were.

In artificially puritanical countries – like Britain and the US – flirting has acquired a bad name, largely through being linked with sex and charged for by the minute on dodgy mobile text services and chat rooms.

But the idea of being too old for anything – let alone a harmless flirt – is one we’d all do well to join a crusading march against, carrying banners and wearing lip gloss.

Jane Austen – and they didn’t come more la-di-da than her – is said to have been an incorrigible flirt, given to crushes on men half her age. It’s what kept the sparkle in her eye and released Mr Darcy from her imagination.

Joanna Lumley still does it with charming seduction and she’s 62. Lauren Bacall continues to enjoy it with a girlish flair and she’s 84. As does Helen Mirren at 63. And why not? Isn’t flirting really only a smile, a little flattery, a bowed head and a lash-fluttering coyness that makes someone else feel more attractive than they are? What has age to do with being nice?

So, straighten the seams on those support stockings, dearies and go for it. Have fun, share a little happiness and flirt for all you’re worth... for fear of turning into Ann Widdecombe.

When did you last enjoy a flirt . . . ?