Kingmaker

The great Stephen Leacock wrote in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, 1912:

"I have had some small connection with politics and public life. A few years ago I went all round the British Empire delivering addresses on Imperial organization. When I state that these lectures were followed almost immediately by the Union of South Africa, the Banana Riots in Trinidad, and the Turco-Italian war, I think the reader can form some idea of their importance."

I know what he meant. In July 2005 I called for the resignation of John Kampfner as editor of the New Statesman. Not three years have passed, and Kampfner has acted on that demand.

Comments

[Kellie Strøm]

Mmm, yes, my own part in the downfall of Charlie Haughey has yet to be widely recognised.

[Tom Foster]

I know exactly how you feel.

Until six months ago my recruitment agency worked with Societe Generale to recruit controls and risk specialists for their finance teams.

We parted ways after they insisted on yet another reduction in our fees and simultaneously announced they were rejecting our latest salary survey and would be recruiting new roles at 2006 salaries, despite our assurance that the best candidates would have plenty of higher offers.

We disengaged ourselves from them and politely asked to be removed from their supplier lists. We haven't worked with them since.

That was six months ago. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.