Getting in early to stay ahead

I’m listening with half an ear to The Alan Clark Diaries on BBC Prime, and the actor who plays him has just read out this line written by the Conservative politician in his actual diary, in those days of machinations for the removal of Margaret Thatcher.

“Most people are not interested in the result, so much as in knowing what the result will be, so that they may ingratiate themselves, in advance, with the new regime.”

He may have been a consummate philanderer, but despite that (or because of it) he was remarkably astute in observing the quirks of human nature.