Terry Prone: Many smart people in public life need to learn when to stop talking 

If public figures cannot curb their monologue, we need someone to invent a gadget that sounds an alarm after the first 90-seconds of guff, writes Terry Prone

File picture.

IT sits there, in its neat little presentation box, looking high-tech and eager to serve. I sanitise it once a month, even though it hasn’t been used in years. You never know the day nor the hour that it will be called upon again.

I bought it in an American airport shop called Brookstone, which was invented for early-adopters and suckers. They specialise in gadgetry that is novel and expensive. They also do memory foam pillows, which would seem a confusion of offering, but who knows.