The dead sheep has the last laugh

Geoffrey Howe, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose style of delivery was once mocked by Dennis Healey as akin to "being savaged by a dead sheep," in a parliamentary exchange had a certain satisfaction until his death last night.  Although he was 88 and Healey was ten years older, he got to see his bete noire shuffle off the mortal coil before he, the dead sheep, did.  There is irony there that Healey himself would admire.