So very much his own man. In more than a few ways, he reminded me of the Good Doctor Asimov, one of whose lines was writing science popularisation books. SH, though, wrote the real hard stuff, and made it readable, which is a rare talent indeed. Both of them were possessed of an impish and cheeky sense of humour.

In the UK, we have a Health Secretary ('minister for health' sort of job) who has the misfortune to possess an easily mispronounced surname, which in his case is rather apt. Hunt. I have to struggle to ensure I aspirate rather than use a different initial consonant. Hunt is a profoundly unpleasant man, with an agenda based on destroying the national health service. He denies intending to do so, but rather gave himself away by co-authoring a book advertising exactly that.

Like so many liars--er, I mean politicians--- 'unt misuses statistics. He was challenged recently about exactly that, his misuse of numbers, and suggested to the critic that he, 'unt, knew better.

His critic was Hawking. A third rate politician with no scientific or numerical background chose to inform the world, in public, that he was better at numbers than SH.

Oops. The press were, er, less than kind.