There is a new book by Lord David Owen entitled the Hubris Syndrome. I have not yet read it but my understanding from listening to various radio interviews is that Lord Owen claims that both Mrs Thatcher and Mr Blair were in Hubris prior to their Nemesis.

I have never been a great fan of Lord Owen but in life it is difficult to get everything wrong. I suspect, in terms of Hubris and Nemesis and the two former Prime Ministers' that Lord Owen is correct.

That said it maybe worthwhile repeating the circumstances and consequences of Dr Owens appointment as Foreign Secretary. I was a member of Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service at the time. Dr Owen, as he then was, was plucked from relative obscurity (No. 17) in Jim Callaghan's Cabinet and was made Foreign Secretary (At least No. 3). The promotion surprised many at the time and put Dr Owen in Mr Callaghan's debt. The opportunity for repayment came quickly although contrived and Peter Jay, son of Labour politician Douglas Jay and husband of Callaghan's daughter Margaret, was appointed to Washington as HM Ambassador by Dr Owen. Part of the rather disastrous appointment was that Peter Ramsbottom who was a very talented and a highly respected member of that body of gypsies that comprise the Diplomatic Service was moved on to the pleasant but much less regarded post of Governor of Bermuda.

The Jays were remembered in Washington by their sexual activities rather that their contribution to Anglo/American relationships. Peter put the Nanny in the family way and Mrs Jay had a fairly well publicised affair with Carl Bernstein. He was of course one of the journalists who broke the Watergate story through the columns of The Washington Times.

But everybody prospers in one way or the other. Peter Jay later became an advisor to the repugnant Robert Maxwell and Baroness Jay became leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords.