If Labour comes in you are going to see a lot of people
"If Labour comes in, you are going to see a lot of people like myself are going to emigrate and duck and dive and go to Switzerland," he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times in March. So is Big Frank now going to stick to his word and head for Geneva?"That was a misquotation," says Frank when I ask him if he's busy packing. "I'd never leave England, you know what I mean? They'd have to carry me out in a coffin I've always maintained that I fly the flag for England. Yes, I might get a holiday home here or there or whatever, but I would never, ever, ever leave England Ever. I'd like to congratulate Tony Blair on winning the election, you know what I mean? I hope they keep to their words and make England a safer place and the best place in the world."So that's that sorted, then.
My advice is never to believe what you read in the papers.vLloyd George knew the scoreLAST WEEK'S other big victory took place at Wembley, where our boys won a minor landslide victory over the plucky Georgians in their latest World Cup qualifier. Of course, the only time we've ever won the World Cup, in 1966, was under Labour. So is the wind set fair for a second major footballing triumph, or what?"I can see what you're saying," says England captain Alan Shearer, "but I think you're making a fundamental mistake in comparing the two Labour administrations. As I was saying to Teddy Sheringham the other day, I think a much better analogy would be the Liberal landslide in 1906, and I don't remember us winning much that year."Or maybe he didn't say that at all. Like I say, you should never believe what you read in the papers.. The name of Dr D G Hessayon may not be entirely familiar, but it's a reasonable bet that you own one of his books.
More than one in three people in Britain possess a copy of at least one of his "Expert" series of gardening books. Sales of nearly 40 million copies around the world make the good doctor arguably the world's best-selling non-fiction author. The Houseplant Expert is his most successful work, with current sales totalling over 9 million. He's currently back in the bestseller lists with The New Vegetable & Herb Expert.
I caught up with this 69-year-old publishing phenomenon at his home in Essex. The secret of his books' success is simplicity: "People want answers quickly, they don't want to study the subject. If they have to read a lot, I've blown it." How does he feel about the election? "Like a lot of businessmen I'm quite laid-back and relaxed about this Labour government If they screw it up, we'll put the Tories back in.". No one, including the Labour leader, thought it possible. Between 2 and 3am on Friday morning on his plane back from the North to London Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's press secretary, was being bleeped every 20 seconds or so with news of Middle England seats falling to Labour. And when Michael Portillo's defeat was announced, the Labour leader's determination not to give in to complacency cracked; the Conservatives, he announced, were now in complete turmoil.
There was no champagne; on his flight back to power Mr Blair sipped tea. Even now, three days on, the scale of the transformation of British politics is hard to appreciate. Labour's largest ever majority has done nothing less than turn the nation's political geography on its head. The Conservatives, the most formidable fighting force in British political history, have been wiped out completely in Scotland and Wales and banished from almost every big English city. Their share of the vote was as low as at any time since 1832, their number of MPs as paltry as 1906, after which, as one ex-minister observed last week, it took the party a full 18 years to return to power. And with every prospect of 10 years of Labour power, there was talk of the Conservatives splitting, of pro-Europeans joining a Liberal Democrat party whose popularity had surged to a level unprecedented in modern times.Friday morning brought a mixture of anti-climax and disbelief to many key players. At Millbank Peter Mandelson, the campaign manager, insisted on holding a 6am strategy meeting, leaving the building only when Blair had crossed the threshold of No 10.