Late one night in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli, chancellor of the exchequer in Lord Derby’s Tory government, cunningly thwarted a Liberal wrecking amendment in the Commons to his second reform bill. Having written to Queen Victoria at 2am, he went to the Carlton Club in London, where he was cheered and toasted as “ the man who rode the race, who took the time, who kept the time, and who did the trick”. The following year, he became prime minister.
Much the same words might have been used in the
