South London Beers: Reboot - Last Thursday of the Month at The Prince Regent, Herne Hill, SE24

But if they go round a mates house they'd be quite happy to sit on their leather sofa

...or sit in a car that has leather seats

I've never met any vegans who would be bothered by this sort of thing. I wouldn't want a leather sofa in my house, but I'm not going to be ridiculously unsociable and refuse to sit on a leather sofa. These extreme cases don't really tell you a lot about what's important and positive about veganism.

What if they use make-up that may have been used on monkeys or beagles?

I wouldn't, but from having done a little voluntary work for the BUAV I know that it's an extremely complex issue. I still use toiletries that are probably tested on animals. So what? I already do a lot that I'm happy and proud about. There's no need to be absolutist or fall apart from trying to get too many things right. I'll simply wait for more people to become vegan, as that will mean that the more remote objectives (for me--for some people, campaigning against animal experimentation is their number one priority, whereas I'm more concerned with nutrition) can be achieved.

I've heard that some people have rules where they allow themselves to eat some foods containing animal products so long as it's only a tiny percent...does this still make them vegans?

It depends on what you mean. As I mentioned above, I don't have a problem if something contains trace animal products owing to being produced in the same factory. I think that's vegan--a pragmatic vegan, perhaps, but vegan. Unless someone has done a really sloppy job of cleaning machinery, it's not going to make a great deal of difference.

On the other hand, if someone said, for instance, that they would eat a dish because it only contained a tiny amount of meat (perhaps anchovies) as part of the recip,e then, no, that wouldn't be vegan.