SKIN FLINT'S CITY ). DIARY
I cannot say I shall be sorry if Mr John Davis gives Lord Melchett the push from the British Steel Corporation. He was the appointee of that young buck of the Labour Cabinet Richard Marsh who readily got Kenneth Keith of Hill Samuel to release Melchett after the sad saga of Anglo- Norress.
Lord Melchett had previously been con- sidered a Conservative peer and some felt critical of his collectivist activity in so eagerly scrambling the steel companies following nationalisation. He is believed to have said to his critics that he took the job because if he didn't, somebody else would and probably make a worse mess of it.
Many years ago there were people using the same excuse for undertaking what they said they'd looked on as unpleasant political duties they didn't believe in.
Mentioning Melchett reminds me of an after-dinner talk with a fashionable friend who gloomily conjectured on the tiring pushy women he would least like to have married. Besides smart Lady Melchett he listed, not unexpectedly, Lady Dartmouth and her mother, Barbara Cartland, Lady Antonia Fraser, Mrs Christopher Chataway and a Miss Joan Lestor. Poor women, I am sure that there are a lot of still unknown young women who will push them aside in what they think is a race to the top. They should remember that politicians are like monkeys, clambering from branch to branch, till they get to the top showing only their backsides when they get there.
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