About thirty years ago I was in Washington and got a desperate call from head office. An advertisement had fallen short (we had ads in those days), there was a three paragraph hole on the page, and could I fill it pronto. So I knocked off something on the fringe political candidate Lyndon Larouche, known for bizarre conspiracy theories.

It proved more trouble than it was worth. The newspaper was inundated with threatening letters demanding retractions which, if not forthcoming, would prove that the FT was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Mr Larouche. Our co-plotters included the Queen of England, the international banking cabal, Henry Kissinger and the whole Trilateral Commission, all trying to impose one world government on the US.