Word: biffen
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...their camping stove, lest there be no fuel next winter in their Kensington flat. And in the two days after Howe delivered his budget message to Commons, the Financial Times stock index dropped 27 points. The Tories stoutly defended their drastic action. "This is a severe package," conceded John Biffen, Chief Secretary to the Treasury. "But the severity is made necessary by the situation we inherited...
...share Joseph's fiscal views. Sir Geoffrey Howe, 52, a former left-wing Tory long since converted to tight money and tax cuts, became Chancellor of the Exchequer. John Nott, 47, a tough Cornishman once fired by Heath as too inflexible, became Secretary for Trade and Prices. John Biffen, 48, a deceptively shy but zealous right-wing purist and nationalistic opponent of the Common Market, was named Chief Secretary of the Treasury, in effect, director of the budget. Thatcher's one concession to the moderates on the economic front: confirming James Prior, 51, as Employment Secretary. A ruddy...
...what characters to cross them! Bertie and Jeeves; bumbling Lord Emsworth and the Empress of Blandings, his prize pig; the elegant sybarite Psmith, who believes that early rising leads to insanity; and that boozy American Biffen, who inspired one of the master's famous similes: "He quivered like a suet pudding in a high wind." Whatever it is, the Wodehouse formula is clearly simple-so simple that the secret will probably die with its creator...