Generation i

“DON’T talk to the press. Have a good attitude. Always say yes. You are not here to change the world.” And ladies, please, “Do not put us in a position to remind or suggest what qualifies as proper attire.”

These are among the instructions given to interns in the office of John Boehner, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, in an 80-page manual accidentally left at a Capitol Hill house-party last summer and then posted online. Interns in “Boehnerland”, as his offices are known, spend their time answering the phone, sorting through the post and giving tours of the Capitol (“Do not make something up.”). They are instructed to point out a photograph of Mr Boehner with his high-school friends, “illustrating [his] humility”.