Stephen Pollard

ByStephen Pollard, Stephen Pollard

Opinion

Tebbit's humour

June 28, 2007 24:00
1 min read

Talking of funny...

This is just wonderful:

Chatting with me a few days ago, Norman Tebbit described an unexpected approach from a very senior and slightly embarrassed parliamentary colleague: “I’m writing your obituary for The Times. Could you help with it?” “My dear chap, I’d be delighted, but on one condition: that we introduce into the obituary one small but identifiable error of a kind which The Times will be unable to spot. Then we hand to a third party a sealed envelope containing – for dispatch the day the obituary is published – a letter from me, handwritten to the Times Letters Page. It will begin: “Sir, Even from beyond the grave I must hasten to correct . . .” To Lord Tebbit’s disappointment his colleague turned the idea down.