The hilarious addendum to this is that Idi Amin was in London for the same conference, saw one of the stands, took a paper without paying, and waited to see if anyone would do anything. They didnโt.
He said he learned everything he knew about negotiating with London that day.
Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, famously commented on a London newspaper stand as a sign of the highly-civilised society of Great Britain in the 1940s.
His words came to mind when I saw the state of this newspaper stand in a London tube station this afternoon.
Itโs remarkable how far weโve fallen in such a short amount of time.
His words:
โPerhaps the most impressive sight I came upon was when I emerged from the tube station at Piccadilly Circus. I found a little table with a pile of newspapers and a box of coins and notes with nobody in attendance. You take your newspaper, toss in your coin or put in your 10-shilling note and take your change. I took a deep breath - this was a truly civilised people.โ