Wilkes's Diary: Praising the EU?

There has been a fine exchange of correspondence between David Davis, the hard nut in the Foreign Office in charge of European policy, and Patrick Nicholls, a Euro-sceptic and former transport minister. Nicholls wrote to Davis putting the Euro-sce ptic view about the European Union. Davis, known as something of a Euro-sceptic himself, wrote a lengthy reply, in which he extolled the virtues of the EU. Nicholls was so startled by this official-line reply from his old friend that he wrote again, sayi ng that clearly some madman had got hold of his departmental notepaper and was sending out letters praising the EU, and he thought he ought to be warned.

Davis wrote to Nicholls reminding him that he too had adopted the ministerial line when he was a minister. Davis jogged his memory about the time when he was campaigning to scrap the dock labour scheme in the 1980s and Nicholls, as a transport minister, sent him a letter defending it. Nicholls, fairly copped, responded with a few lines he claims came from an epitaph: My name is Martin Eldibrod Have mercy on me, God As would you if I was God And you were Martin Eldibrod.