I fear that Menzies "Ming" Campbell (the UK’s former Lib Dem leader for the benefit of my majority overseas readers) is not sufficiently unbalanced to produce a bestselling memoirs. Decency is the enemy of sales. His My Autobiography, out March 10, however is at least a lightly whipped soufflé of a read and froths along unencumbered by intriguing solipsism or lucrative vengeance. He is in danger of being thought of as an honourable politician. One imagines good stories were extracted from him in the dentist's chair.
One in particular interested me - it's not new but worth repeating. In November 2003 he and Charles Kennedy met with President George W Bush at Buckingham Palace. They debated Guantánamo Bay, and when the Scotties said that Brits were in illegal detention there Bush made the “throwaway remark: ‘As far as we are concerned, if the British government wants the British detainees back again, they can have them. Just send us the airline tickets.’"
I love Bush's way with words. To buy Campbell's book, click here.
1 comment:
And... did they send them?
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