Thursday 31 August 2017

I remember where I was ....

... when Richard Nixon said on live television that he had never been a quitter. In August 1974 I was on a course in the residential training centre of ICL* in Old Windsor. Probably after a late-night snooker session I was prowling the lounges in search of a coffee pot which was still warm, when I noticed that a TV was still on, and Nixon's face was on it. He was delivering his famous "I am not a crook" speech and it was being relayed live by BBC.

Mrs May has not so far confirmed our worst fears by declaring that her administration is not criminal, but she has echoed his line about not being a quitter. She is tempting fate, as Nixon did.

* In those far-off days when the UK still had a major computer manufacturer, before Mrs T came along to declare that it was not necessary for Britain to make computers, in a foretaste of Patrick Minford's assessment that UK would thrive outside the EU without industry.

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