I have a question ...
I have fond memories of growing of watching the TV show Spitting Image. It was a wonderful satire show that, at its best, was poisonously apt and brilliantly, side-splittingly funny. I’m reminded of this show whenever I’m in a situation where I feel I ought to ask a question, and don’t know quite what to say. In 1986, Michael Heseltine resigned from Margaret Thatcher’s government over the Westland Affair, essentially an arms-deal-gone-wrong. Heseltine and Thatcher disagreed, rather publicly, and Heseltine resigned. I vividly remember scenes from the Spitting Image treatment of this event. Heseltine is shown at a news conference in front of a crowd of journalists (all, incidentally, pigs in trenchcoats and trilby hats), as he explains that his decision was quite unpremeditated and spontaneous … as explained in his new book, which he then pulls out from under the desk. Thatcher is shown, in parliament, I think, saying “I have here Mr Heseltine’s resignation letter. It reads: ‘Dear Michael you’re fired, be out of the building in ten minutes’.” And finally, I remember the chaotic Q&A session with the journalists, one of whom asks “Mr Heseltine! Mr Heseltine! I don’t have a question, but I want my editor to see me so I can claim expenses.”