To Take A Different Course

The next Minister of State for the Commonwealth will not be an uncle of two of Imran Khan's sons. But three cheers for anyone who calls out a lynch mob, a witch hunt, a kangaroo court, or a show trial. And while Zac Goldsmith's Greenery is a disappointing devolution from the views of his robustly pro-industrial and pro-coal father, that paternity does give me a certain affection for him.

In September or October 1996, in one order or the other but I cannot remember which, I received out of the blue a letter addressed to "Dr David Lindsay" from Jimmy Goldsmith, and a letter addressed to "The Reverend Dr David Lindsay" from a Reverend Doctor who, at almost exactly the same time, admitted me as an undergraduate for the next year at the Durham college of which he was Principal.

I must still have the signed copy of his book that he enclosed even though I had no idea how he had ever ever heard of me, but Sir James was corrected, although he continued the correspondence even once he knew that I was a 19-year-old barman. My other correspondent left both his position and this country very soon afterwards. To this day, I have never met him, so I can only assume that he thought that there were two David Lindsays at this address, presumably a father and son.

Goldsmith is the only person without a doctorate ever to have assumed me to have held one, but people with their own have done it with remarkable frequency. I have no idea why, but academically distinguished people read my work and just assume me to be a PhD. Of course, I always correct it. But I thoroughly enjoy the fact that it drives certain people up the wall. No one has ever made that mistake after having read their effusions. Nor ever will.