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Nick de Bois is the Conservative MP for Enfield North, and is part of the Tory Class of 2010. He talks spies, Eurovision and Machiavelli as he tells us about his favourite books. 1) Which book is on your bedside table at the moment? Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power 2) Which book would you read
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‘This really isn’t what I had in mind when you offered to take me to an exclusive London club.’
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‘Do we have an exit strategy?’
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‘WHAT? By giving up its lone outer electron, a sodium atom achieves a desirable quantum mechanical configuration and is left with a positive charge. By accepting an extra electron, chlorine fills its eight electrons and gains a negative charge. The charged ions are then held together to make molecules and crystals of common salt (NaCl) by electrostatic forces… Lassie, are you absolutely sure that’s what the professor told you?’
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‘Come on now, who’s going to text the first word?’
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‘He’s a dirty old man of the people.’
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From our UK edition
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‘It says here you work part-time as an artist’s model...’
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‘We’ll be buggered once everything is digital.’
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‘Oh no! The place is swarming with journalists.’
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‘If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears, does it make a sound?’
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‘Paper, glass, cans, food, plastic, cardboard and non-recyclables.’
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Healing the world Sir: We most warmly commend the courage of Professor Meirion Thomas (‘The next NHS scandal’, 23 February) in lifting the lid on the appalling abuse of the NHS by foreign visitors. It has been going on for years but has been covered up by the culture of fear that has pervaded that
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Home Moody’s reduced Britain’s credit rating from AAA to AA1. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: ‘Far from weakening our resolve to deliver our economic recovery plan, this decision redoubles it.’ Sir Mervyn King, the governor of the bank of England, was outvoted on its Monetary Policy Committee when he proposed more quantitative
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The foreign news pages read increasingly like some terrible satire on western military decline. Two years ago French and British forces, with the help of the US Navy, managed to help Libyan rebels topple Colonel Gaddafi. This year, the French needed British support to go to war against some tribesmen in Mali. It was a
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Political joke The Five Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo, won 26% of the vote in the Italian general election. Comedian John O’Farrell competed as Labour’s candidate in the Eastleigh by-election. Some other comedians who have won office: — Jon Gnarr won Reykjavik’s mayoral election in 2010 with 35% of the vote, on a