What a fascinating read Jonathan Aitken's newly published diaries make. I just can't seem to put the book down!
The erstwhile perjurer, perverter of the course of justice, (almost) son-in-law of Her Maggieship, biographer of my alter ego (Nixon - A Life), and receiver-in-the-gob of half a glass of decent claret from my old chum Anna Ford, tells a typically hilarious anecdote about his time as one of our local MPs, in his book 'Heroes And Contemporaries'. Out on the stump with his zoo-keeper mate John Aspinall, Aspinall apparently addressed the assembled Ramsgate masses thus:
"Napoleon once said that England is a nation of shop-keepers. As I look around Ramsgate High Street this morning I see that Ramsgate has become a nation of shop lifters."
Now it strikes me that some of my older readers may have been in attendance at this rally, and what I'd like to know is what happened next? Was Aitken:
1. Run out of town by a marauding pack of pit bulls?
2. Told by some wag at the back there were no more shops left to lift?
3. Re-elected on the basis of his charming chutzpah?
Answers on the usual post card, please.
7 comments:
I enjoy a good work of fiction,is aitkins book out here in Arson World.
Hardback, £20, Continuum Publishing (sick bag included).
Well, he went to prison, didn't he?
eventually but he was mp for sarf fannit from 1983 - 1997
Not sure about that but there's loads about his pal R M Nixon, and, as you know, he's now all repentant and happy-clappy, saying his previous mistakes were due to him being 'puffed up with pride'. Oh, and Thatch once had the timing of a HOC debate changed so he could go for a dirty weekend with Carol in Greece.
I have to say it's not exactly Alan Clark standard.
Well these politicians are all usually quite nice on an individual basis. It's when they're in a pack that things turn nasty!
That's not on, Arty. Would you like to elaborate? Or if you email me the details, I'll send the boys round.
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