Politics is often described as a game, and I am
glad a Times leader-writer thinks it so. All the same, I find the metaphor be permitted himself a little obscure. Mr. Attlee, he wrote, " has decided, it would seem, that he can safely carry the ball to Mr. Bevan, knowing that Mr. Bevan is in no position but to kick it out of play." The first question, of course, is whether this is soccer or rugger, and having sought authoritative opinions on this vital point, I am stymied (golf) by finding them diametrically opposed. " Carry " would certainly indicate rugger. The Prime Minister makes a run on his own, passes to the late Minister of Health, but the rebel can do no more than find touch, as you or I would put it, or " kick it out of play " as The Times less succinctly suggests. Alternatively the ball is round, not oval. In that case the Prime Minister, at centre forward, after a bril- liant run up the field passes (unaccountably, I admit) to the out- side left, who misses the goal by furlongs and protests plaintively that, placed as he is, there was One Way Only. Alternatively the two players are not on the same side but on opposite sides. What it means politically stumps me (cricket). * * * *
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