Zebras

Mention the name James Callaghan and those who do remember him are likely to mention his being mistakenly credited uttering the immortal "Crisis? What Crisis?"

How many know that he is likely to have invented the term zebra crossing?

Today I found that when visiting a road-research laboratory after the war, he had seen a model of these painted pathways across a highway and said, "it looks like a zebra": the phrase stuck.

Which reminds me that the orange, flashing bulbs at the roadside were called Belisha Beacons, so named in honour of another politician - a Mr. Belisha who, I think, was elevated to Lords, though whether in honour of services to the roadside I cannot say off the top of my head (or opening another window on this Mac).