A SPECTATOR
'S NOTEBOOK
fur EASURED by his own high standard—and so far as Budget In expositions go it is high—Mr. Dalton's speech on Tuesday was well below the best. The Chancellor has many little idiosyncrasies which just escape being defects so long as they are held in check. On Tuesday they broke restraint, as he was afraid that inflation might. An easy attitude in a speaker is agreeable, but for most of his three-hours' speech Mr. Dalton was definitely lounging across the table in a pose neither dignified nor effective. The three hours, moreover, was a great mistake. Mr. Gladstone could hold the House for five hours, but the fact of possessing Mr. Gladstone's despatch-box (temporarily) does not confer that faculty on the present Chancellor, and in any case the House of 1947 would not suffer copiousness of diction as the House of 1853 quite gladly did ; it was the general verdict on Tuesday that what was said in three hours could have been said much more effectively in two. And then there were Mr. Dalton's quips. In moderation his pleasantries are entertaining, even when there is rather much of a party kick in them, and do good service in lightening a serious deliverance. But it is always a mistake for a speaker to be even more amused by his own humour than his hearers are, and Mr. Dalton does not always avoid that danger. Even asides and obiter dicta genuinely amusing in themselves lose some of their savour when their effect is to lengthen further an already too long speech.
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