Iain Norman Macleod and #Krazy

[Roger Lancaster]

I don't think that was really Roger's point.

It wasn't really my point but, but for any centenarians who can remember Harding's death in 1923, the shortest US presidency in living memory.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... 141%20days.

Looking at this Wikipedia list there are perhaps less then 20 people alive in the entire world right now who would remember, they would realistically have to be in the 110s to actually have any recollection of that event since for most of them it would have required reading international news which I don't expect was easy to get your hands on in 1923

Yes, Joey, I know. But, if I hadn't added the qualification about centarians, someone would have argued that it was within "living memory" for those few remaining very old people.

[Joey Stewart]

It seems a shame that people so old are not world famous and end up simply rotting away in nursing homes - they should be considered on par with great celebrities and world leaders, like venerated oracles. Certainly they have seen and achieved so much more in their lives then the average YouTuber or reality TV 'star'.

[John Clarke]

Amen to that, Joey. It's a real privilege and insight to encounter living history of that kind. About 40 years ago, back visiting the Old Dart, I met a chap in his late 80s, father or uncle of one of my parents' neighbours. He had clear memories of seeing the turn-of-the-century celebrations as a nipper in 1900/01. A decade or so after then, he'd heard Salvation Army founder William Booth speaking at some event, and was able to give an almost verbatim account of what he'd said.

These accounts can cover an incredible time-span. James Michener, while researching his novel Texas, was able to talk to a man whose grandfather had fought at San Jacinto, nearly 150 years before - imagine that!

Trouble is, one is often too young to appreciate such encounters while the person concerned is still fully compos mentis, and by the time you do come to understand their value, their mental treasure-house is lost to failing memory or inability to give a coherent account. If you've got recollections likely to be of interest, write them up! Not long ago I realised I was the only one left in my generation, on my father's side, with living memories of our grandparents. I've got those nailed down now, at least ....

[Mick Norris]

Truss has resigned; time for another leadership election

[NickFaulks]

time for another leadership election

Probably not an election, just a stitch-up. Tory MPs will certainly not want any involvement this time from grassroots Tory members, whom they despise.

[John Upham]

time for another leadership election

Probably not an election, just a stitch-up. Tory MPs will certainly not want any involvement this time from grassroots Tory members, whom they despise.

I have decided to relocate to Woking or Wokingham, take out a subscription to the Gruniad and purchase several months worth of

tofu-landscape_annotated-7e94b7a2cf104d2cba22c8cf6ad7e970.jpg

Will this help me?

[Matt Mackenzie]

The trouble is, they can't agree on any one person to "stitch it up" for. Don't put the popcorn away just yet.....

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Tofu, not popcorn, pay attention!

[Chris Goodall]

Kemi was meant to be the darling of the grassroots members last time, was she not?

Since she'll be in power a total of 2 years, and economic policy is apparently dictated by the bond markets anyway, I think it'd be fun to watch a white KC KCB BCL(Oxon) try to lecture a Black woman who used to work in McDonald's about the British Empire

[NickFaulks]

and economic policy is apparently dictated by the bond markets anyway

Only if you want it to be.

[Chris Goodall]

and economic policy is apparently dictated by the bond markets anyway

Only if you want it to be.

Liz did exactly what she promised to do and now she is no longer PM; do you think she wanted it to be?

[NickFaulks]

Liz did exactly what she promised to do and now she is no longer PM

She didn't have to betray all of her supposed principles as soon as someone said boo and then resign - that was her choice. She was the last chance for the country and turned out to be just a little mouse. Utterly pathetic.

[Chris Goodall]

Liz did exactly what she promised to do and now she is no longer PM

She didn't have to betray all of her supposed principles as soon as someone said boo and then resign - that was her choice. She was the last chance for the country and turned out to be just a little mouse. Utterly pathetic.

If there's one thing on which the proponents of Laffernomics and Marxist economics agree, it's that the sunlit uplands were seconds away from spreading out before us when the Dear Leader lost their nerve and changed course.

[NickFaulks]

If there's one thing on which the proponents of Laffernomics and Marxist economics agree, it's that the sunlit uplands were seconds away from spreading out before us when the Dear Leader lost their nerve and changed course.

Whatever that may mean, she held the office of Prime Minister of an independent nation and nobody could have forced her to betray us. She chose to betray us.

[Chris Goodall]

If there's one thing on which the proponents of Laffernomics and Marxist economics agree, it's that the sunlit uplands were seconds away from spreading out before us when the Dear Leader lost their nerve and changed course.

Whatever that may mean, she held the office of Prime Minister of an independent nation and nobody could have forced her to betray us. She chose to betray us.

Laffernomics: the demonstrably untrue proposition that you can increase revenue by cutting taxes and waiting an unspecified amount of time. I recommend The Triumph of Politics by Reagan's special economic adviser David Stockman if you want more detail why it doesn't work, but the governor of Kansas did the experiment again about a decade ago to check it still doesn't work, and it still doesn't work. Its surviving advocates are mostly reduced to "but it's never been properly triiiiiied!" which makes them hard to distinguish from communists.