Valerio ridiculed the proposal to his friends and called Cavour an aper of English customs.

And yet I never look on midnight sky, / But I behold thine eyes' well memoried light ….

It was the fall of 1995, and the Democratic National Committee had a problem. Faced with the cost of its massive early media strategy, it needed a quick $1 million or so. A senior White House official had a solution: get the President to call some well-padded contributors.

This taps into issues such as driver-only operation, on which Labour has been outspoken in supporting striking union members.