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What's in a nickname, eh, Donkey?

 

Will Dean
Wednesday 20 February 2013 20:01 GMT
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Michael Gove: 'I don’t recall being called Donkey, no'
Michael Gove: 'I don’t recall being called Donkey, no' (Getty Images)

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Michael Gove was dismissive when asked in an interview with Jan Moir in the Daily Mail whether his alleged university nickname of “Donkey” – based on an unnamed anatomical oddity discovered in what the paper calls a “five-in-a-bed romp” – was true. “It wasn’t like some sort of Last Tango in Paris-type affair. I don’t recall being called Donkey, no,” he told the paper.

It’s not the first unlikely childhood/college nickname for a prominent politician.

Can you match the youthful nicknames to these British and American politicians?

1. Tony Blair

2. Senator Harry Reid

3. George Osborne

4. Mitt Romney

A. “Knowledge”

B. “Bird Legs”

C. “Pinky”

D. “Emily”

Answers 1-D Blair’s Fettes schoolmates thought him “girly”; 2-C The younger Reid had a reddish skin tone; 3-A Osborne’s siblings thought him the smartest in their family; 4-B Young Mitt had skinny legs

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