Patricia Whelk

Patricia Whelk read Economics at Cambridge and Law at the London School of Economics, emerging with two degrees, a deep suspicion of optimism, and a vocabulary that makes most people feel inadequate. She joined Eleutheria's economics desk in 1991, correctly predicting the recession of 1992 and little else since. Her column on legal affairs was added in 2003 when the previous legal correspondent retired to pursue what he described as "something less depressing." Patricia's analysis is characterised by exhaustive detail, impeccable sourcing, and conclusions that arrive so heavily caveated as to be essentially neutral. She has used the word "headwinds" in print on 847 recorded occasions. She lives in Kensington. She does not make jokes. She made one in 2007. Nobody noticed.