Fortunately for the British, his Anglophilia survived the rebuff he received as a young man when his admiration for William Pitt the Elder had led him to knock on the door of Pitt's house in London, by then the home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

ECONOMIST: Caspar Weinberger

Today in Britain - not in some foreign dictatorship, not in a bygone age, you can wake up in the morning, in your own bed, in your own home to hear a knock on the door from an official with one of over a thousand powers that now allow the state to enter your home.

BBC: Cameron's data speech in full

But she remains frightened about answering the phone or dealing with a knock on the door.

BBC: Mobility aids scams threaten elderly, says OFT