the best brains

J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways, now revived at the National Theatre, is one of Priestley's 'time plays', inspired by J. W. Dunne's An Experiment with Time.

This 1937 play is famous for its premonitions. But on the first night, certainly, it was one of the characters' predictions that drew an unexpected laugh:

'There'll be no more booms and slumps and panics and strikes and lock-outs, because the people themselves, led by the best brains in their countries, will possess both the political and economic power.'