{"id":5542,"date":"2011-04-29T10:34:07","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T09:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=5542"},"modified":"2011-05-02T17:15:33","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T16:15:33","slug":"is-this-the-most-eccentric-man-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=5542","title":{"rendered":"Is this the most eccentric man in Britain?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Britain is still such an odd, old-fashioned nation. It&#8217;s the kind of place where a royal wedding can still bring the country to a halt (oh yeh, it&#8217;s today).<\/p>\n<p>The British have a great tolerance for eccentricity and we embrace oddity in a rather charming way whether it is media personalities like Russell Brand or politicians like Dennis Skinner. Today I want to introduce you to someone you&#8217;ve never heard of who may be the most eccentric person in British public life.<\/p>\n<p>So, what does it takes to be truly eccentric?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An odd name is a good start. The Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley fits the bill. He is otherwise know as Christopher Walter Monckton.<\/li>\n<li>An odd appearance helps. He has protruding eyeballs. This is not his fault &#8211; it is the result of a prolonged illness called Graves&#8217; Disease.<\/li>\n<li>Some real talent is desirable. He is a really bright guy who obtained his first degree from Cambridge University and he has developed two incredibly complicated geometric puzzles called Eternity and Eternity II. He is a very accomplished public speaker and media performer.<\/li>\n<li>A sense of charm and humour is welcome. He is warm and witty and immensely sociable.<\/li>\n<li>Most of all, strange, idiosyncratic and iconoclastic views are essential. He is a leading Eurosceptic who wants the UK out of the European Union. He has developed something called Resurrexi which he claims can cure all sorts of diseases. Above all, he is a passionate denier of the argument that human activity is causing dangerous levels of global warming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can read more about my nomination <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christopher_Monckton,_3rd_Viscount_Monckton_of_Brenchley\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain is still such an odd, old-fashioned nation. It&#8217;s the kind of place where a royal wedding can still bring the country to a halt (oh yeh, it&#8217;s today). The British have a great tolerance for eccentricity and we embrace oddity in a rather charming way whether it is media personalities like Russell Brand or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5542"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5619,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542\/revisions\/5619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}