Heroes/villains of wine: notes on Rt Hon Lord Ernest Marples PC

Whips, wine, panties, fires, fraud, Fleurie, the M1, E.R.N.I.E., Norwich postcodes, the Chiswick Flyover... the career of Ernest Marples reads like freeform poetry. But we could do with him today.

According to Herodotus, when the Persians debated anything, they debated it twice: once while sober and once while drunk. Only if they agreed in both states would they proceed. From a standpoint of neurodiverse decision-making, this makes sense. In the Mad Men era, when Americans were drunk after lunch, the economy grew by about 9% annually.

This is fro…