Imperfect markets

I toddled along to the IEA this evening for the launch of Eamonn Butler's "The Best Book On The Market"*. As usual, if you turn up on the day, you get a couple of glasses of wine and you get to chat to some nice people and eat some very delicious nibbles and a couple of quid off the cover price and the author will sign it for you, the eager purchaser.

Problem is, what dedication would I like ..? I asked him to go for the default option "To ...., don't let the bastards grind you down, signed ...."** and he fluffed it! He wrote "Don't the bastards wear you down" instead.

Imperfect markets indeed!

* Which is a jolly good book, having read the first half or so on the train home.

** Scroll down to Column 21. I've got a copy of James Delingpole's "How to be right" with exactly that dedication stashed away somewhere or other.

1984 (2): Rewriting history

"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future", summarised Winston Smith in the book '1984'.

Trevor 'Coconut'* Phillips seems to have taken this to heart and now wants British history to be rewritten to make it more 'inclusive'.**

* This is not a term of racial abuse. It means an outwardly black person who has totally sold out.

** See also James Delingpole on the subject of Mary Seacole in 'How to be right', a book I am not ashamed to recommend.