Abstract
Most politicians are like children playing at Pooh-sticks: they drop an idea into the water, creating a momentary ripple, and then watch it carried mercilessly on by the larger flow. It is only occasionally that one of the children turns out to be a visionary civil engineer who leaves off Pooh-sticks and attempts instead to dam or direct the stream. The problem for analysts of the political scene, observing briefly a change in the direction of the water, is to determine whether it is merely a ripple about to be carried away or a genuine diversion.
This chapter has benefited from the comments of the members of the Carlyle Club, to whom an earlier version was delivered.
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Notes and References
H. Morrison, Socialisation and Transport (London, 1933): 156–7.
M. Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation, trans. A. M. Henderson and T. Parsons (New York, 1945): 359.
George Brown, In My Way (London, 1971): 119.
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© 1990 Oliver Letwin
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Letwin, O. (1990). Three Myths of Government. In: Clark, J.C.D. (eds) Ideas and Politics in Modern Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20686-5_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20686-5_15
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