It's one of the wonders of the Internet (and Indeed Youtube) that you can now find footage online of famous speeches that were only previously related in newspapers in reported speech. With the launch of the new "not a nationalisation" central rail body I found myself thinking about Harold MacMillan's infamous "selling the family silver speech" and due to the wonders of technology we can now see it online in all its original smoke filled room and dinner jacketed glory. This truly is a masterclass in comic timing and how to put the boot into your successor.
Harold explained later in a much longer speech to the House of Lords (also available online if you search for it and have a very high boredom threshold) that it wasn't privatisiation its self he was sending up but the treatment of assets as income.
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