Perverse as it might sound, when the chips are down our appetite for being scared witless increases.

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After all, lots of people used to be scared witless about flying, but that issue has largely faded.

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Yet even deep cuts will help less than usual to cushion a recession caused by snarled-up credit markets and banks scared witless.

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Mr Justice Horner said Ms Doherty must have been "scared witless" after Rodgers and his accomplice "hunted down their prey" after she escaped from the taxi.

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My father forced me to come with him, and made me pull up a pike that scared me witless, and when I refused, he hit me in the face, and then I hammered a nail into my foot, and we were forced to go home.

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