[EM] Seeking a snippet of trivia

Tom Round T.Round at mailbox.gu.edu.au
Sun Sep 26 19:31:20 PDT 1999


I seem to recall, years ago, reading an anecdote about a doctor in Britain
who committed suicide after the Labour Party won a House of Commons
election in the 1960s or 1970s. He left a suicide note claiming that he
couldn't bear to live under a Labour govt.

I quoted this from memory in my honours thesis, but would like to source it
more accurately. I think it was one of those books with a title _something_
like "What A Way To Go! The World's Most Unusual Last Words" and edited by
someone like David Frost. As I understand it, the anecdote was stated as
fact (ie, a name, date and place) rather than an urban legend ... I find it
a vivid way to illustrate an argument for Bentham's principle of utility,
ie that preferences should not all be counted as equal because some people
have a much more intense stake in the outcome than do others ...

Thanks for any help ... Tom.



More information about the Election-Methods mailing list