It was not easy covering the EU because of its institutional complexity – and it certainly wasn’t a barrel of laughs. But there was a bit left over which he used as wrapping paper at Christmas because he’s careful with the pennies.

The Arab spring, which erupted in Tunisia in late 2010, provided not just hope for the region’s oppressed peoples, but a chance to expand my collection.But he is not alone: Vladimir Putin, generating global headlines because of his widely condemned invasion of Ukraine, exists in the formal plaster or bronze bust commemorating Soviet-era leaders from Lenin and Stalin onwards – as well as in traditional matryoshka (“little matron”) dolls that have been available of Russian leaders since Mikhail Gorbachev ushered in perestroika. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. I still managed to find a delicate figurine of Mahatma Gandhi in Exmouth market (near the Guardian’s old office on Farringdon Road), a tiny statuette of Paul von Hindenburg (the German chief of staff during the first world war and its interwar president) in Brighton, and an Abraham Lincoln bust while visiting New York to cover the UN general assembly. Tableau featuring Mustafa Kemal, AKA Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the post-Ottoman Turkish Republic, 1923-38. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

Then in my mid-60s, when Covid came, it was the first time that I spent lots of time with my 4 kids. Theresa May sat silently directly behind her successor, radiating the kind of negative energy that would put a black hole to shame. Above left: busts of Juan Perón, president of Argentina from 1946-55 and 1973-74, and his wife, Eva, a working-class actor and accomplished speaker, immortalised in 1976 in the rock opera Evita and the song Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. No historical monster is beyond the pale; my wife has had to learn to share our home with the villains of my collection.

All were toby jugs, a classic British form of caricature in clay, dating back to the late 18th century. Trump Will not disappoint as he puts his glorious golden faux-locks to work to drain that porcelain swamp. I invited problems with security by carrying Bin Laden to Dublin in my hand luggage, which was scanned. It is possible, given his past experiences, that Johnson genuinely believes that you’re not in a proper workplace unless there’s an ongoing paternity dispute.

The fact is, he didn’t actually say, we live in a world that has suitcases of wine, and those bottles need to be opened by people with corkscrews, using words like vintage, covid-secure bar, and wine fridge. One said: “Oh dear it definitely looks nothing like a tree and very much like a gigantic toilet brush. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The truth is that I already owned a Macron, albeit encased in one of those tacky plastic snowstorm bubbles, along with hundreds of other objects displayed on cramped shelves in our dining room, which friends, guests and neighbours are generally astounded by on first sight. But the cleaners who had to wipe the wine and the vomit off the floor and the walls were also on the frontline.

At least one government cleaner, instructed to keep coming in to work during lockdown, contracted Covid and died. Although the prime minister kept telling us that it was impossible to distinguish working from partying, cleaners probably know the difference. Figurines of Marianne, models of the Eiffel Tower and tricolore-draped bric-a-brac were ranged on shelves looking out over the Seine on my visit in 2018. In Warsaw that summer I found a plaque of Jósef Piłsudski (Poland’s interwar leader) for the złoty equivalent of a few quid.

Asked whether his staff, who have been telling journalists for months that there were no parties, had lied to him as well, the prime minister explained that they had been suffering from a false consciousness. For ages I’ve had my eye on another Hitler, dating back to 1941, with his cloth-covered rear end serving as a pin cushion. Small rubber dolls inspired by the Spitting Image TV series (though not the ones used in the show) were a more up-to-date version of those, with Blair and SDP leader David Owen . GAG GIFT / HOUSEWARMING/ SECRET SANTA ITEM: You will make someones day with this ideal housewarming accessory. Longevity is not merely the length your life, but also the lasting effects of legacies you leave behind long after you are gone and forgotten.An old friend later said: “I imagine you getting sent to far-flung corners of the world on a purchasing mission, while trying to fit in your day job. Etsy’s 100% renewable electricity commitment includes the electricity used by the data centres that host Etsy. It's also the perfect joke present for a birthday, company gathering, political party or housewarming that will make your friends laugh and remember your gift! But regular European travel, combined with visits to local flea markets, meant that the opportunities for collecting were endless.