SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2019Top 10... bold statements that
came back to bite
John Rentoul on verbal hostages to fortune with a price
Liberal with the truth: Nick Clegg pledged not to increase university tuition fees (PA)
This list was inspired by a colleague who asked where the phrase “burning injustices” in a Jeremy Corbyn
speech originally came from (it was a reference to Theresa May’s words in Downing Street when she
became prime minister). And thanks to Jonathan Portes, who proposed a similar, overlapping Top 10 of
people whose most famous statement, in their field of expertise, was wrong – which certainly applies to the
first two.
- “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” Irving Fisher (described by
Joseph Schumpeter as “the greatest economist the United States has ever produced”), nine days before the