On this day, 56 years ago, Vice President Richard Nixon gave his infamous Checkers speech and got to keep his job; and his wife's respectable Republican cloth coat; and the dog. When I was at university one of my mates had a copy of the speech on Super 8; we used to watch it whilst smoking bongs of Afghani hash - endless hours of entertainment.
After eight years of Captain Codpiece I am suddenly nostalgic for the good old Nixon years.
