THIS WAS BROUUGHT TO MIND WHEN THERE WAS YET ANOTHER DEBATE ATTACKING THE CIGARETTE INDUSTRY WHICH HAD PROVIDED CAREER AND PENSION.

Smith was in the bathroom but had given up his Pavarotti daydream due to the particularly unkind remarks of Jones his neighbour two houses down. Instead he had taken to imagined interviews with the great and the good. They all knew him by name of course and he bathed in the reflected glory.

“I say” he said to the great man “do you dislike Blacks“. Only for a very short time was there any hint of tension before he replied; “Certainly, Sensible old man, almost as much as I dislike Whites”. Smith thought the word “almost” quite Churchillian for the  great man to show his humanity in this way. The locals, of course, thought it quite Mandellian 

There’s a thought muttered Smith
“Labels are bad for your health”