11 MARCH 1966, Page 9

Jellyfish It's extraordinary how general elections seem to bring the

best out of the weather. The long, glorious summer of 1959 was unforgettable: a dreamy succession of scorching days that never seemed to end. The best summer we've had since then was 1964; and now we're revelling in this wonderful spring. The psephologists have taken great pains to demonstrate that all this has no bearing whatever on the actual election results, of course; but most of the shrewder judges of politics know better. Harold Macmillan always used to maintain that October was the best month for a government to have an election, since popu- lar contentment was at its peak `when the chara- banes roll home from Seville.' The trick was to choose the right October; and this, according to Supermac, all depended on the jellyfish. I don't know what the jellyfish do in March.