He added, "That's unthinkable today".
Martin Kettle must be exceptionally naive if he believes it's unthinkable that MI5 would be interested in the surveillance of historians today (Being a communist was all it took, 24 October).
Long before he won awards and adulation as the US's dream president on TV's The West Wing, it's unthinkable he wasn't rewarded for standout work in two 70s classics.
The changes he sees around him were unthinkable just 15 years ago, he said.
"I don't even think about it, man, that's unthinkable," he said, shaking his head.
Germany is still "the savior of the euro," he said, "and it's unthinkable that one day Germany should be the savior of Europe and the backbone of the economic union and the next the funeral director of alliance politics".
Giving the collection to Cuba, he said, was unthinkable; he explained that valuable items were known to disappear from its museums, and that waiting to see what happened after Castro is a risky venture.
To convict a child of terrorism was a terrible breach of their rights, he said — to execute them was "unthinkable".
It's unthinkable now!" He didn't have a clue how artistically rich Tyneside was then.
It is God himself who decides to send him to Hell, where it's unthinkable that he could go on feeling cold.
