Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

News that the former Liberal MP Clement Freud has died, at the age of 84, reminds me of the occasion I first met him.

It was back in 1979 at a debate I held at the Oxford Union when he came as one of my guests.

The Union catering staff were terrified beforehand, because on Freud's previous visit he had dismissed every morsel of food on his plate as too inferior for his palate.

Happily at my debate he seemed quite happy with the meal we offered, and even complimented the cook to her face.

But then, after the debate Freud came very close to fisticuffs in my office, over an exchange he had had during the debate with Malcolm Turnbull, who was then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and is now leader of the Opposition in Australia (see past blog about him).

Sadly I forget the details of what it was that got Freud so angry. I think Turnbull had asked what Freud's reaction would be if someone hypothetically suggested his mother was a prostitute.

On Just a Minute a few years ago Freud also told one of my all-time favourite jokes, as follows:

"'Why are you so fat?' a man asked me the other day.

'Because every time I sleep with your wife she gives me a biscuit.'"